mudblood
by Faerie0975
Summary: elle taylor is a regular girl with an regular life. but when an owl shows up at the living room window with a strange letter, how will she deal with this new life she's been forced into? can she take it? / slightly au next generation. on hiatus.
1. Change

Chapter One

"Elle!"

"Coming," I called in the general direction of my bedroom door. I stuck my bookmark in my well-worn copy of _Kissed By An Angel_, got off of my bed and went downstairs. My mother and father were standing in the middle of the living room. Dad's arm was around Mum's shoulders, and they both had frightened expressions on their faces.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Elle," said Mum, "why is there an owl at the window?"

I looked at the window, and sure enough there was a brown barn owl sitting on the window-ledge, clutching a large envelope in its beak.

"How should I know?" I asked, crossing to the window and opening it. The owl fluttered in and landed on the coffee table. I stepped towards the owl, and it hopped towards me. I got the feeling it wanted me to take the envelope.

I reached out, very slowly, and my fingers closed around the envelope. The owl's beak opened, and I looked at the front of the envelope.

"It's for me," I said, glancing at my parents.

"What do you mean, 'it's for you'?" asked Mum worriedly. I just shrugged and opened the envelope, pulling out a folded letter.

_Miss Elle V Taylor,_

_We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find an enclosed list of all necessary books and equipment._

_Term begins on 1 September. Please be at Platform 9 __3_/_4_ _at 11:00 AM on 1 September at King's Cross._

_Sincerely, _

_Filius Flitwick, Deputy Headmaster_

I looked up. "Are we moving or something?"

Dad frowned. "What do you mean?" He took the letter from me and scanned it as I unfolded the supplies list, a small crease between his eyebrows.

_First Year students will require:_

_-Three sets of plain work robes (black)_

_-One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear_

_-One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)_

_-One winter cloak (black with silver fastenings)_

_Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags._

_All students should have a copy of each of the following:_

_-The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 1 (by Miranda Goshawk)_

_-A History of Magic (by Bathilda Bagshot)_

_-Magical Theory (by Adalbert Waffling)_

_-A Beginners' Guide To Transfiguration (by Emeric Switch)_

_-One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi (by Phyllida Spore)_

_-Magical Drafts and Potions (by Arsenius Jigger)_

_-Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (by Newt Scamander)_

_-The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection (by Quentin Trimble)_

_Other Equipment:_

_-1 wand_

_-1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)_

_-1 set of glass/crystal phials_

_-1 telescope_

_-1 set of brass scales_

_Students may also bring an owl, cat or toad._

_PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST-YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS._

I looked at my parents, who were frowning over the first letter, their heads bent down to read it better.

"How am I supposed to get all this stuff?" I asked.

"Elle, honey, are you really taking this seriously?" asked my mother.

I didn't answer her.

"This is some kind of prank, Elle," said Mum.

"I don't think it is," I replied. "You know, this is pretty creative stuff. I mean, if it were a prank, how would someone have come up with this?"

Mum stared at me.

"Listen, Mum," I pleaded. "Let's just see if we can get this stuff, all right?"

"Exactly," said Mum triumphantly. "Where are you going to get it?"

I frowned. "I'm not sure." On an impulse, I glanced into the envelope again. A single slip of paper was still in the envelope. I pulled it out.

_Miss Elle V Taylor,_

_As a Muggleborn, you will need directions to Diagon Alley, where you can get your school supplies. Go to Charing Cross Road. You will be able to see a pub called the Leaky Cauldron, invisible to Muggles (non-magical persons). It is located in between a record shop and a bookshop. Go through the Leaky Cauldron into the rear courtyard and tap a certain brick (you will know which one to tap) three times, thus entering Diagon Alley._

_You should visit Gringott's Bank first. You have a vault there, as do most wizards and witches, into which has been deposited a small amount of wizard money, enough to buy your school supplies and have a little leftover._

_Sincerely,_

_Filius Flitwick, Deputy Headmaster_

"Well," I said, "I know a way to tell if this is a joke or not."

Mum and Dad looked at me, startled. "How?"

"Well, obviously, if this Diagon Alley exists, then I'll be able to see it, according to the letter, and if we can get in, it's not a joke."

Dad sighed. "All right, Elle. We'll go."

Mum looked at him in shock.

"Margaret," he said softly, "she won't let it drop until she's tried it."

Mum sighed and reluctantly agreed. "When should we go?"

"Now!" I suggested. I couldn't wait to see if this was real or not. If it wasn't, I would be very disappointed.

***

When we arrived at Charing Cross Road, I walked ahead of Mum and Dad until I reached the record store. Directly beside it was a building with a sign shaped like some sort of big pot, labeled "The Leaky Cauldron." There was a chimney with smoke puffing merrily out of it, and a big wooden door standing open. Through it I could hear merry voices and the clinking of glass upon glass.

"Here it is, Mum!" I said. "See? It's not a joke!"

I grabbed her hand and dragged her along the sidewalk. Dad followed, seemingly in a daze. I wove through the many passersby who seemed utterly ignorant of the pub. They didn't even spare it a sideways glance as they walked past. I remembered what the letter had said: It was invisible to non-magical people. What was the word that the letter had used? Migfuls?

Inside, the pub was lit by dim lanterns hanging on the walls. The lighting was a little better near the windows and over at the bar, where a smiling lady was cleaning glasses. I led my parents to a door in the back, guessing that it led to the rear courtyard that the letter had described. I was right. The courtyard was empty except for a garbage bin and a tabby cat reaching a paw under a pile of firewood. From the firewood I heard little squeaking noises.

The courtyard was enclosed on all sides. Three walls were wooden, but one was brick. One brick seemed to glow, just slightly. I supposed this was what the letter had meant about me knowing what brick to tap. I reached out a shaking finger and tapped the brick one, two, three times.

At first, nothing happened. Then there was a grinding noise as the bricks began to move all at once. They folded over themselves and slid out of the way for their fellow bricks, rearranging the wall into a large archway. Beyond the archway lay a long, wide alley bustling with people. On both sides were brightly-lit shops with posters in the windows. Stalls dotted down the center of the alleyway were surrounded with people. At the end of the alley was a large marble building with wide steps up to it. A sign over the big doors claimed that the building was Gringott's Bank.

"Come on, Elle," said my father, and boldly led me into the mob of people.

I glanced into the windows of the stores as we made our way towards the bank. Inside the bank, I saw several small creatures with wrinkled skin at the counters and waddling around muttering to themselves. We got into a line at the counters behind an old lady carrying a fat bag. When she reached the front of the line, the creature behind the counter, which I realized was a goblin, took the bag, opened it, looked inside it, and nodded.

"Would you like to deposit all of these?"

"Yes," said the old lady firmly.

The goblin nodded again, reached below the counter, and emerged with a large scale. Plunging his stubby fingers into the bag, he began to pull out shining rubies and pile them onto the scale.

Half an hour later, I emerged from the bank with a heavy moneybag in my left hand and my parents hurrying along behind me.

"All right, where to first?" asked Dad.

I pulled my supplies list out of my pocket. "Wand, I would guess," I said. "Seems like a pretty important thing to get."

We wandered along the alley until we found a shabby-looking shop with a wooden door. Over the door, peeling gold letters read _Ollivander's: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 BC_. A single window displayed a dull purple cushion with a stick of wood lying upon it. When I opened the door, a bell tinkled quietly above me. My parents and I entered the shop in silence. It appeared empty. A single wooden desk sat in the middle of the room, and two old chairs in one corner. The walls were occupied by floor-to-ceiling shelves holding hundreds of narrow boxes piled on top of one another in stacks.

A middle-aged lady with dark brown hair and green eyes poked her head around the corner of a hall I hadn't realized was there and smiled brightly.

"Greetings!" she said, coming out into the open. "My name is Cassandra Ollivander. Have you come to buy a wand?"

_Why else would we come to a wand shop?_ I caught myself wondering, but I just nodded.

Cassandra Ollivander pulled open a drawer in the desk and withdrew a long string with lines across it. She ordered me to come over by the desk and began to measure various body parts -- the length of my arms, the space between my nostrils, the length around my thigh. Then she held up a skinny finger and scampered up a ladder, bringing down six narrow boxes. She opened the first and pulled out a strip of wood. She carefully held it out to me.

"Twelve and three-quarters inches, cherry wood and phoenix feather," she informed me. "Wand arm?"

I frowned.

"Dominant arm," she said impatiently.

I held out my left hand, and she placed the wand in my hand, curling my fingers around it.

Nothing happened.

She frowned and got out a different wand. "Ten and seven-eighths inches, mahogany and unicorn hair."

Still nothing.

"Thirteen inches on the dot, elder and Veela hair."

"Nine and a half inches, rosewood and dragon heartstring."

"Nine and seven-eighths inches, yew and unicorn hair."

"Twelve and a quarter inches, beech and phoenix feather."

This time, the wand in my hand shot off green sparks. I jumped in shock, but Cassandra Ollivander was nodding enthusiastically.

"This is the one!" she cried triumphantly. "The wand has chosen the wizard!"

Five minutes later, I left the shop clutching the box with my new wand in it.

A few hours later, I returned to my house with bags full of my schoolbooks, robes, a cauldron, quills, ink, parchment, scales, Potions ingredients, a telescope, and a variety of random objects that I had convinced my parents to let me buy from a joke shop called Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes. I also carried two cages, one large and one small. The small one held a tiny green fluffball -- a "Pygmy Puff," I had been told by the redheaded man who owned the joke shop. The large one held a snowy owl with darker flecks on her wings. My father carried a large trunk that I had been assured it was necessary to buy.

I raced up to my room and put my things on the bed. Dad followed me up the stairs and put the trunk in the middle of the floor.

"Do you want help packing your things?" he asked.

"No, thanks," I replied brightly.

"All right," he said, and closed the door behind him. I put my iPod in its speakers and played some music as I started to pack.

As I packed, I thought about names for my new pets. The owl ended up with the name Storm, and the Pygmy Puff I named Monique.

It took me several days to pack. On August 31, I finished packing and checked through my trunk just to make sure I had everything.

Just in case, I had packed my regular clothes as well, and several random things that I wanted to take with me, including my laptop, my favourite stuffed animals, some of my favourite books, and some random souvenirs from my travels.

"Elle! You're going to be late for your train!" called Mum.

"Coming," I called back.

As a last impulse, I put my iPod and speakers in the trunk as well. I shut and locked the trunk and Dad came upstairs so he could carry it to the car for me.

When we arrived at the station, I loaded my trunk and the two cages onto a luggage trolley. A family of five passed us as we wheeled the trolley around, looking for Platform 9 3/4. The father had inky black hair and glasses. He had his arm around a lady with dark red hair and brown eyes. Three children trailed along behind them; two boys and a girl. Each boy pushed a trolley, and they were arguing fiercely about something. They each looked absolutely identical to their father. The girl had her mother's red hair but green eyes like her father's, and she was complaining to her parents.

"But _I_ want to go to Hogwarts _now_!" she sobbed.

"In a couple of years you can go to Hogwarts, Lily," smiled the father.

I glanced at my parents and began to push the trolley after the other family.

They stopped in front of a blank brick wall. The father looked around. "All right, James, go," he said, and the older of the boys stepped forward. He pushed his trolley at the brick wall, and I watched carefully. Instead of running smack into the wall, the boy -- James -- went straight through it. I gaped at where he had been only a moment before.

"Al, Ginny, your turn," said the father as if his son hadn't just disappeared into a solid brick wall. The mother took the other boy's arm and walked him towards the wall. They, too, disappeared. The father took the little girl's hand and they also went through the wall.

"All right," I said. "This is it. Let's all go together." I glanced at the large clock -- 10:48 AM. Then I started pushing my trolley forwards. My parents each grabbed one of my arms, and I got the most curious sensation as I walked into the wall -- as though I were walking through a sheet of cold water.

Then I emerged on the other side into a crowd of trolley-pushing young people holding cats, owls and toads, hugging their parents goodbye. Beside the platform was a big red train with words along one side. _The Hogwarts Express._

Ahead of me I caught sight of the family that had gone through the wall before us. They seemed to be looking for somebody. I pushed my trolley in that direction, curious. When I stopped near the family, they were talking to another four people. The oldest son had disappeared.

"So that's little Scorpius," muttered a redheaded man who belonged to the new family. "Make sure you beat him in every test, Rosie. Thank God you inherited your mother's brains."

"Ron, for heaven's sake," said a lady with bushy brown hair. "Don't try to turn them against each other before they've even started school!"

"You're right, sorry," said the man -- Ron, I think the other lady had said. "But don't get _too_ friendly with him, Rosie. Granddad Weasley would never forgive you if you married a pure-blood."

"Hey!" The older son from the first family had reappeared. "Teddy's back there. Just seen him! And guess what he's doing? Snogging Victoire! _Our _Teddy! _Teddy Lupin_! Snogging _our_ Victoire! Our _cousin_! And I asked Teddy what he was doing..."

"It's nearly eleven, you'd better get on board," said the black-haired father after a minute.

"Don't forget to give Neville our love!" called the redheaded mother.

"Mum! I can't give a Professor _love_!" said James, as though it were obvious.

"But you _know_ Neville," began his mother, but her son interrupted her.

"Outside, yeah, but at school he's Professor Longbottom, isn't he? I can't just walk into Herbology and give him _love..._" Shaking his head, he aimed a kick at his brother, which was neatly dodged. "See you later, Al. Watch out for Thestrals!"

"I thought you said they were invisible?" Al said in a panicked voice. "_You said they were invisible!_"

But James only laughed, hugged his father, received a kiss from his mother, and leapt onto the train. The father calmed down the younger boy, reminding him that, as a first-year, he'd be riding up to the school in a boat, not carriages.

"Bye, Al," said his father. "Don't forget Hagrid's invited you to tea next Friday. Don't mess with Peeves, don't duel anyone until you've learned how. And _don't _let James wind you up."

Al whispered something to his father as I said goodbye to my parents.

"Bye, honey," Mum said tearfully, hugging me.

"I'll write you guys," I promised, hugging them both. "If Storm shows up at the window, let her in, okay? Don't just stand there staring at her."

"Love you, Elle," said Dad, and helped me get my stuff on the train. I found myself in a packed corridor next to a redheaded girl, the one who had to beat somebody in every test.

For some reason, everybody seemed to be staring at the black-haired father.

"Why are they all _staring?_" Al put words to what I was thinking. He stood on the other side of the redheaded girl, waving out the window to his parents.

"Don't let it worry you," said the redheaded man. "It's me. I'm extremely famous."

Al's parents laughed.

The train began to move, and I waved to my parents.

"Goodbye," I whispered, as they disappeared.

***

**_Author's Note: _**_So what do you think? I have never really thought about the perspective of a Muggleborn before, and I got the name from a Sim that I made. :) Review and tell me what you think, please! Not that I'm begging for reviews or anything. I'm not one of those people that goes all "REVIEW OR I WILL DELETE THIS STORY! I NEED EIGHT REVIEWS THIS CHAPTER!" and stuff. I write for fun, not for praise.  
_


	2. Home

Chapter Two

As soon as the train station was out of sight, everybody in the corridor began to move in different directions. There was a lot of yelling and screaming and crying and, in some cases, a bit of swearing as trunks were dropped on toes.

I followed the red-haired girl and the black-haired boy on an impulse. They went into a half-full compartment and shut the door behind them. I waited for a minute or so before knocking on the compartment door and asking if I could sit with them. They accepted and I entered the compartment.

"Here," said the black-haired boy, leaping up from his seat, "I'll help you with your trunk." And with a few grunts of effort, he lifted the trunk, then dropped it on his foot and screamed in pain.

"Here," said an older boy with brown hair. "Let me." And he took the trunk and swung it onto the rack easily.

"Thanks," panted the first boy.

I sat down quietly.

"So, introductions are in order, I think," announced the older boy. "I'm Jacob Miller, fifth year. These are my sisters, Shannon" -- a girl with short-cropped brown hair and deep blue eyes -- "and Annemarie" -- a younger girl who had the same coloured hair to her hips and the same bright blue eyes groaned from her seat -- "who prefers to be called Annie." Jacob looked expectantly at the rest of us.

"Well," said the redheaded girl, "I'm Rose Weasley, and this is my cousin, Albus Potter --"

"Potter?" said Shannon, sitting up straighter. "Like Harry Potter? Are you related to him?"

"He's my dad," said Albus.

"Oh my God," said Shannon. "That is amazing. Tell me all about your life. I want to know _everything --_"

"Shannon wants to be a journalist for the _Daily Prophet_," Annie told us.

I wondered briefly who Harry Potter was and what the _Daily Prophet_ was, but they were all staring at me now.

"Um," I said, tucking a lock of straight blonde hair behind my ear, "I'm Elle Taylor, and I have no clue what you guys are talking about with _Daily Prophet_ and Harry Potter and stuff."

All five of them stared at me in shock.

"You don't know who _Harry Potter_ is?" gasped Shannon.

"Um..." Was that bad?

"He's only the greatest wizard _alive,_" continued Shannon, as though it were obvious. "I don't believe this!" And she proceeded to tell me all about this Potter guy's entire life so far. "...And now he lives in Grimmauld Place in an enchanted house -- number twelve -- with his wife and three kids! Oh my God, you --" here she pointed at Rose in awe -- "You're related to the Potters too, aren't you? This is amazing! How are you related?"

"Uh, my dad is Uncle Harry's best mate," Rose began, "and Aunt Ginny's brother."

"You're Harry Potter's _niece?_" Without waiting for an answer, Shannon turned to Albus. "And you... You're his _son_."

"I know that," said Albus.

"Oh my _God!_" And Shannon launched into a monologue about how amazing Harry Potter was and blah, blah, blah... After about twenty minutes, there was a knock on the compartment door and two girls opened the door. One had straight reddish-brown hair and the other dirty-blonde.

"Is Shannon in here? _There_ you are," said the first one in relief. "We've been looking for -- oh my God! Rose! Al! You're finally at Hogwarts! Oh my goodness, I completely forgot! How are you liking it so far?"

"We aren't even there yet, Molly," said Albus.

"Oh my God! Molly! Why didn't you tell me that you knew Harry Potter's son?" screeched Shannon, breaking off from her monologue.

"Sorry, Shannon. It just never came up."

"How do you know him?" said Shannon immediately.

"He's my cousin," said Molly.

"What!"

"Come on," said the blonde girl, and grabbed Shannon's arm and dragged her out of the compartment. "We're way down the train, we've been looking for you for _ages_..."

"Bye, Rose, Al!" said Molly brightly, and followed her friends down the train.

"Finally," sighed Annie. "Her monologues go on for _ever_."

"Be nice, Annie," chided Jacob. "She's your sister, after all."

"So I have a right to talk about her behind her back," said Annie.

"You have a Pygmy Puff?" said Rose excitedly, noticing the little cage on my lap.

"Yeah," I said. "Her name's Monique."

"I have tons of Pygmy Puffs! I get them for presents. Look," said Rose, pulling out a much larger cage, in which about twenty fluffballs of all different colors rolled around, cheeping. "Uncle George and Aunt Angelina own Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes in Diagon Alley, so they give them to me. I've got twenty-six now. One for each letter of the alphabet. See, there's Alfred, Bailey, Carrie, Derek, Evie, Forest, Glop, Hilda, Ivory, Jared, Kylie, Luke, Manny, Naomi, Opal, Piggy, Quigley, Richie, Spot, Tiger, Uno, Vee, Willy, X, Yvonne, and Zaney."

"I've only got one," I said stupidly, astounded by the number of fluffballs in Rose's cage.

Jacob left with his friends, and I was left to talk to Annie, Rose and Albus for the remainder of the train ride.

A black-haired boy knocked on the door after it was dark outside the train. He was the exact image of Albus -- I recognized him from the train station.

"Hey, Al," he said. "Don't you have your robes on yet? You should. We're almost there."

The four of us scrambled to get our trunks down and put our robes on as the train stopped.

"Dad said that luggage stays on the train and they'll have it brought up to the dormitories," said Rose. "Let's go."

I followed the other three off the train and saw a large shadow nearby. A deep voice was calling, "Firs' years this way, firs' years over here..."

"Come on, it's Hagrid," said Albus excitedly, leading us towards the shadow, which turned out to be a gigantic man. He led us to a group of boats.

"Four ter a boat," called Hagrid. "Four ter a boat. No more'n four."

I climbed into the boat that Annie, Rose and Albus were already occupying. Hagrid took up an entire boat just by himself. He took out a pink flowery umbrella and tapped it on his boat, and we all started moving.

Soon the castle came into view. It was very big, with wide stone steps leading up to the big wooden doors. As Hagrid led us up the stairs, the doors opened to reveal... nothing. Oh, wait, there was a tiny little man with white hair standing there.

"Here they are, Professor Flitwick," said Hagrid gruffly, and we all stopped. Hagrid, meanwhile, continued on past the tiny man and through another set of doors.

"Come this way, first-years," said the little man squeakily, and led us to a large room. "Welcome to Hogwarts! In a few moments we will enter the Great Hall so you can all be sorted into the four houses -- Gryffindor, Ravenclaw, Hufflepuff, and Slytherin. Each house is like your family while you are at Hogwarts -- you remain in the same house over the seven years you come here, living in the same dormitory as the others in your year, sharing a common room with your house. Good deeds earn your house points towards the House Cup, while breaking the rules will take away points. Do you all understand?" He looked around at us all, then nodded, apparently satisfied. "Good, good. I will be back in a moment," said Professor Flitwick, and left the room.

There was nervous chatter as we waited for him to return.

"I wonder what house I'll be in?"

"I hope I'm in Hufflepuff. My entire family's been in Hufflepuff."

"_I_ want to be in Gryffindor."

"I don't care what house I'm in, as long as it's a house."

"How do they choose what house you're in?"

"I heard you have to fight something."

"A troll, that's what _my_ brother told me."

"Nonsense, it's a hat."

"You fight a hat?"

"No, you wear a hat."

"How does that decide what house you're in?"

"I'm not sure. My mother told me that it shouts out what house you're in, but I don't know how it decides."

"All right, first years!" said Professor Flitwick, returning. "Let's go!" He led us out of the room and across the hall and through the same set of doors that Hagrid had gone through. When I walked through the doors, I started looking around like everybody else. Through the ceiling I could see the starlit sky, much the same as it had been when we were in the boats.

"How does the ceiling do that?" I asked Rose.

"Magic, obviously," said Rose. "Mum said it's an enchanted ceiling."

There were four long tables filled with people. The tabletops were empty. Above each table, candles hovered, giving the large hall a bright glow. On the wall at the end of each table, there was a big banner. One was green and silver, depicting a gigantic serpent. There was a yellow one with a badger, and a blue one with a bronze eagle, and a red and gold one with a roaring lion.

At the end of the room was another table, not quite as long, filled with adults. I assumed these were the teachers. In front of the table was a wooden stool. Upon the stool sat one raggedy hat, black and pointed.

Professor Flitwick pulled a scroll out of his robe and unrolled it.

"Adams, Elizabeth," he called.

A girl with dark red curls stepped forward, trembling with either excitement or fear. She sat down on the stool and put the hat on her head. There was a moment of silence in which you could see only her body, as the hat covered her entire head. Then the hat yelled out, "GRYFFINDOR!" and a great cheer rose from the table with the lion banner. Pulling the hat off, the girl ran to the table and sat down.

"Appel, Tanya!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

"Brody, Jordan!"

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

Annie was declared to be a "RAVENCLAW!" and Albus a "GRYFFINDOR!"

Finally, they reached my name.

"Taylor, Elle!"

I stepped forward, shaking, and did exactly what the others had done. As soon as the hat was on my head, it started talking. I assumed that the rest of the Great Hall couldn't hear it.

"Hmmm... You're a smart one... But brave, too... Gryffindor? No... RAVENCLAW!" It yelled out, and I went to sit by Annie at the Ravenclaw table.

I kept my fingers crossed for the rest of the first years until Professor Flitwick called out the last one up there. "Weasley, Rose!"

Rose stepped forward, her face alight with excitement, and sat down on the stool. The silence this time was very long, almost unbearable. Then the hat yelled, "RAVENCLAW!" and Annie and I cheered with the rest of our new house.

Then the hat and stool were taken away and a lady at the head table stood up. "To our new students, welcome to Hogwarts, and to our old students, welcome back! This year will be filled with learning and fun..." She went on to say how the forest in the grounds was forbidden and listed some rules. Then -- "Enjoy the feast!" She clapped her hands and sat down, and suddenly every table was filled with dishes upon dishes of steaming food, more food than I had ever seen in my life. As soon as all the plates were clean, they disappeared and more dishes appeared, this time filled with puddings and pies and cakes and tarts and all kinds of desserts.

As soon as the Headmistress finished her second speech of the evening with a "Now! Off to bed with all of you," two older students, a girl and a boy, stood up at one end of the Ravenclaw table.

"First years, over here," said the boy in a commanding voice.

Rose, Annie and I made our way over to them and were joined by seven other first years, five boys and two girls.

"Come this way, first years," ordered the girl, and they began to lead us out of the Great Hall. We reached the top of a spiral staircase and crowded onto a small landing with a stone floor. There was a wooden door in the otherwise blank wall, with no doorknob or keyhole, but only a bronze knocker shaped like an eagle. The girl who was leading us raised one hand and knocked the knocker three times. A musical female voice said coolly, "Which came first, the phoenix or the flame?"

The girl turned to us. "Anybody have any ideas?"

I wondered what we were doing and what the question even meant.

Someone's hand shot up. "The flame, because otherwise how could the phoenix grow out of the ashes?"

"No," snapped another, "it was the phoenix."

"Where's your proof?"

The girl sighed and turned back to the door. "It's a circle without a beginning," she said in a bored voice, and the door opened silently to reveal a wide, circular room. Arched windows around the room revealed the stars outside and were framed with blue and bronze silky curtains. A domed ceiling above the midnight-blue carpet was painted with stars. The room was furnished with dark wooden tables, comfortable-looking chairs in different shades of blue, and many bookcases around the room, filled with thick books. Across the room was a white marble statue of a beautiful lady. On either side of the statue was a door.

"Girls to the left, boys to the right," said the boy, and led the five boys through their door. The girl beckoned to us and led us through the door on the left. There was another landing and a staircase spiraling downwards. She led us down the stairs, glancing into each room as she passed. When we reached the seventh landing, she stopped.

"This is your dormitory for the next seven years," she announced. "Find the bed with your things by it. Feel free to decorate your section of the room however you like. Goodbye!" And she started up the stairs again.

One of the other girls opened the door and we filed into the room, which was just as round as the common room, but a little smaller. Five beds with dark blue blankets on them were surrounded by trunks and cages. I found the bed with Storm's cage and Monique's cage on it and sat down. Rose was already stretched out on her bed, gazing up at the ceiling, and Annie had flung open her trunk and was digging through it. The other girls -- Carla Wilde and Kaylee Nigoll -- were chattering happily.

Rose looked at me and smiled. "Home sweet home," she said softly.

***

_**Author's Note: **__Hooray! It's my birthday AND I finished chapter two of the story! Thank you to cocogirl198 for reviewing! Yay, I'm 15!!!!!!!!!!!_


	3. Mudblood

Chapter Three

I withdrew my head from beneath my new bed and shook my head sadly. Not a plug in sight.

Then it hit me. The lamp! There was a lamp sitting on my bedside table. I crawled over the bed to get to the side with the table and followed the cord excitedly. I reached from behind Rose's trunk and felt... Nothing.

What?! No plug for a lamp?! How was it even lit, then? I pulled out the end of the cord. Right. Magic. Of course. The plug was glowing, emitting a purple light. I stared at it sadly and promised myself that I would learn that spell.

There were five closets around the room, one by each bed. A second door near the entrance to the dormitory led to a small bathroom. We all agreed that each of us would get one shelf in the bathroom, and took turns picking shelves and filling them with toothbrushes and hair ties. When it wasn't my turn, I hung my clothes in the closet, grateful that I wouldn't have to dig through my trunk every morning.

There were two shelves over the headboard of my bed. The bottom one became home to my textbooks, using Monique's cage as a bookend. I lined up my novels on the top shelf and set up my souvenirs on the bedside table next to the magically lit lamp -- a Mickey Mouse statue from Disneyworld in Florida, a wooden elephant carving from Africa, a stuffed kangaroo toy from Australia. My parents were into traveling.

Once we were all settled in, we sat in a circle on the carpet. Annie taught us a get-to-know-you game; we started with telling each other our full names, then one person asked another a question. Once the second person had answered, they picked a different person and a different question, and so on.

"Annemarie Lucy Miller, but I prefer Annie," said Annie.

"Rose Ceanne Weasley."

"Kaylee Yvonne Nigoll."

"Carla Rachel Wilde."

"Elle Vera Taylor," I introduced myself.

"Rose, pick a person and a question," ordered Annie, who had obviously played this game before.

"Er... Carla... How many siblings do you have?" stammered Rose.

"Eleven," Carla answered promptly, "but some of them are steps. Annie, where do you normally live?"

"Godric's Hollow. Elle, what are your parents' jobs?"

I jumped. "Um, my mum doesn't work, and Dad's a teacher at the local high school."

"You're a Mudblood?" asked Kaylee, startled.

"I -- what's a Mudblood?" I inquired.

"It's a highly offensive term that means the same thing as Muggleborn," said Rose, glaring at Kaylee. Her voice was ice cold, and as hard as steel. "You should be extremely offended and hit her."

"She's a _Mudblood,_" said Kaylee, shaking her head from side to side. "A Mudblood... Why do they even get let into this school?"

There was a moment of silence in which Kaylee continued to shake her head. Suddenly a thick book flew through the air, the corner of the book hitting Kaylee square between the eyes. Kaylee yelled in pain. "Stupid Mudblood!"

What? That wasn't me!

"What's going on?" came an alarmed voice from the doorway. It was the girl who had led us to our dormitory. She stepped into the room as Rose, tears streaming down her face so that she was barely recognizable, screamed, "My _mother's_ Muggleborn!"

"What's going on?" repeated the girl. "Listen! I am a prefect!"

Nobody listened to her.

"What's happening, Ayla?" asked another girl, appearing behind her.

"I AM A PREFECT!" bellowed Ayla, obviously desperate to know what was happening. "NOW TELL ME WHAT'S GOING ON, UNLESS YOU ALL WANT DETENTION!"

"One of th-them threw a b-b-b-book at m-m-me," sobbed Kaylee, rubbing the spot where _A Beginner's Guide to Transfiguration_ had hit her.

"Yeah," said Rose, "that was me!"

"Why?" asked Ayla, confused.

"Because she was having a go at Elle _and_ my mother!" Rose informed the prefect, wiping her eyes on her sleeve and lifting her head to look at Ayla.

"_Rose?!_" said the prefect in astonishment, then she turned to Kaylee, still trying to figure out what was happening. "Why did you insult them?"

"They're _Mudbloods,_" said Kaylee loftily, as though she expected Ayla to agree with her that Mudbloods were filth.

"So?" said Ayla, shattering Kaylee's last hopes. "That doesn't make them scum or anything! Which one of you is Elle?"

"I am," I said, hating to be the center of attention.

"Apologize to Elle," ordered Ayla.

"Sorry, Elle," said Kaylee in an insincere tone.

"What's your name?" added Ayla.

"Kaylee Nigoll."

"You will write a letter of apology to Rose's mother," announced the prefect.

"I don't even know her name!" objected Kaylee. "And she doesn't even know that I did anything!"

"It's Hermione Weasley," Ayla informed her coldly, "and I'm sure that Rose will tell her. But just in case, you can tell her in the letter. I'm sure that will solve all your problems. And the both of you" -- she looked from Kaylee to Rose and back again -- "will be doing lines with me tomorrow."

"But --"

"No buts, Rosie," said Ayla firmly. "Just because I'm dating your cousin doesn't mean you'll be let off for throwing books at people. And lines are a pretty easy punishment. I could be sending you to Filch. You'd be scrubbing the bathroom floors so he wouldn't have to do it himself. Tomorrow evening, after you finish your supper, I'll meet the two of you at the table by the fireplace in the common room." And without a backward glance, she left the room. The other girl, who had been watching the exchange as though it were a television show, left with her.

There was complete and total silence in the dormitory. Then --

"You got your cousin's girlfriend to get me in trouble!" accused Kaylee.

"In case you hadn't noticed, Kaylee," said Rose coldly, "I'm in trouble, too." And with that, she climbed into her bed, pulled the curtains shut around her, and was silent. Annie and I followed suit. A moment later, I heard Carla say goodnight to the room at large. I was asleep before I heard Kaylee get into her own bed.

***

_**Author's Note: **__Sorry it's taken so long to get this up there! I really am sorry. I've been obsessed with the Sims 2 -- I got it for my birthday. SIms 3 won't work on my amazingly awesome Mac, *sniff sniff!* But Sims 2 is still amazing. I got the Pets expansion as well. Anyways, I'll try and get Chapter 4 up as soon as I can._


	4. School

Chapter Four

The next morning, Kaylee was dressed and out of the room before I even had the time to sit up in bed.

"Ignore her," advised Carla confidently, pulling on her socks. "She lives down the street from me back home. We played together as kids, and she's been mad at me plenty of times. She'll get over it."

I arrived at breakfast with Rose, Annie and Carla just in time to eat a little bit of food before the Heads of House strode up and down the four long tables, handing out timetables.

"Miss Weasley, Miss Weasley..." muttered Professor Flitwick when he reached us. He flipped through the pile of timetables in his arms, finally extracting Rose's timetable. He had equal trouble finding the rest of our timetables. Finally, we were out of the Great Hall and on our way to Potions with Gryffindor. Rose was very excited to see Albus again. When we reached the dungeons, we stood out in the stone corridor for a while, waiting to be let into the classroom. Al and his new friend from Gryffindor, a boy with white-blond hair and light blue eyes named Scorpius Malfoy. Eventually, the dungeon door opened and a large man came out.

"Come in, come in!" he cried loudly. "I'm Professor Slughorn! Take a seat!"

Professor Slughorn bounced excitedly up by his desk as we filed in, repeatedly crying, "Come in! Take a seat!" Once everyone was seated, he took roll call, which was uneventful until he reached Potter, Albus. "Oho!" shouted Professor Slughorn. "Look who we have here! The second son of Harry Potter... How long until your sister is coming to Hogwarts, now?"

"Two years," replied Al, bewildered.

"Two years! Only two more years," said Professor Slughorn, shaking his head. "My, she's grown up fast, that one! I remember when your parents sent me pictures of the three of you, just after little Lily was born... Perhaps she'll have her grandmother's talent... Now, Lily Evans, she was a dab hand at Potions, she was! I hope you can live up to the expectations!"

And after that, roll call continued. The professor stopped only once more, at the very end. Weasley, Rose. "Daughter of Ronald Weasley and Hermione Granger... Why, your mother, little Rose... She was brilliant at Potions, she was. And your father tells me that you've inherited her brains!" He fell silent for a moment, but then started up again. "Have your parents told you, perhaps, of your father's seventeenth birthday? The day that I saved him from poisoned mead? Well, rather, that was Harry's doing... A bezoar... But I like to think that I had a hand in it! You see, your father had accidentally eaten some candy filled with a love potion intended for Harry, and Harry brought him here, to me, to be cured! And as it was Ronald's birthday, I opened a bottle of Rosmerta's finest mead... I was going to give it to Dumbledore, but it's a good thing I didn't, eh? Then again, he died later that year anyhow..." Professor Slughorn trailed off, tutting sadly. There was a lengthy silence in which nobody moved. Then the professor, with a brisk clap of his hands, told us to open our textbooks to page eighteen and try our hands at a Cure for Boils. The Cure for Boils proved to be a very complicated potion, much too complicated for mere beginners like us. By the end of the period, we were all sucking our aching fingers, which we had burnt many times on our cauldrons, and waving our hands in a failing attempt to clear the thick yellowish smoke filling the dungeon. We were told to scoop a sample of our potions into a glass vial, which resulted in more burns, and turn them in to the teacher.

Our next class, according to our timetables, was Herbology, in Greenhouse One. Professor Longbottom, who had apparently had the first period in a different greenhouse, arrived a few minutes after us and let us into the greenhouse, puffing with the effort of running all the way from Greenhouse Six to Greenhouse One.

He took roll call, then told us a few things that we would be learning over the course of the year. Then he told us to get a pair of earmuffs and join him by the table in the middle of the greenhouse. He waited patiently while we did so, scrambling to get a place where we could see him.

"Today we will be repotting Mandrakes," announced Professor Longbottom. "Who can tell me the properties of the Mandrake? Yes, Roch."

A boy from Hufflepuff said in an official sounding voice, "The cry of the Mandrake is fatal to anyone who hears it. They can be cut up and used in a Mandrake Restorative Draught which cures people who have been Petrified."

"Correct. Ten points to Hufflepuff. Now, put on your earmuffs and watch me very carefully." Once everybody had their earmuffs on, he reached into one of the pots in front of him and grabbed a leafy plant around the stems, and pulled. There were a few gasps and screams that were barely audible because of two things; one, the earmuffs, and two, the wailing coming from the roots. The roots didn't even look like roots; they looked like an extremely dirty, naked baby screaming its head off. Professor Longbottom held the plant-child by its hair (or, really, its leaves) with one hand and scooped dirt into another pot with the other. He plunged the Mandrake's root (or body) into the dirt and the screaming ceased. Brushing the dirt off his hands, he smiled at us and signaled for us to begin.

Our final class before lunch was Charms. Our teacher was Professor Flitwick, Head of Ravenclaw House and Deputy Headmasster of Hogwarts. He took roll call from a position on top of his desk that set him at eye level with most of the students, then told us to get out some parchment and ink. He told us to write down what he said, and told us what we would be learning. Then he announced that he was going to teach us Alohomora, the spell to unlock things, and showed us the wand movement and how to say the incantation. He took us out into the corridor, where we practiced on the classroom door. By the end of class, the only person who had managed the spell without turning the lock into a clucking chicken (Rose) or setting the door on fire (me) was Carla, who earned Ravenclaw fifteen points.

We got a break then, for lunch, which proved to be every bit as delicious as breakfast. Then we went off for Transfiguration.

Our Transfiguration teacher turned out to be none other than the Headmistress herself, Minerva McGonagall.

"Mum and Dad told me that she doesn't like to seem as though she can't do anything herself. They think that's why she still teaches, even though she's Headmistress," Rose whispered to me.

The first thing Professor McGonagall told us was how hard Transfiguration was. Then she turned herself into a cat and back, and told us to get out our wands. She showed us basic wand movements and things like that until the bell.

Next came History of Magic. Our teacher, Professor Binns, appeared to be a ghost. I knew because he entered through the wall. He got al of our names wrong (I became Miss Tyson) and the entire class was spent taking notes on the great wizards of the fifteenth century.

Our final class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts, with Gryffindor; Rose and Annie told me it was the most looked-forward-to classes at Hogwarts.

The teacher introduced herself as Professor Adams, Elizabeth Adams' older sister. The grinning twenty-something blonde told the class about the first that "little Lizzie" lost her first tooth by swallowing it and cried because she thought it was part of her brain. Once the entire class was in tears and Lizzie was a burning scarlet, Professor Adams dropped the family history and moved on to things we would be learning. Then she arranged our desks in a large circle with a sweep of her wand and explained a get-to-know-you game similar to the one Annie taught us last night. The first person asked the person next to them a question. After answering, they turned to the next person and asked _them_ a question. Professor Adams started by asking the person next to her, who happened to be Lizzie, a question.

"What's your most embarrassing moment?"

"Today, when you were telling stories about me," said Lizzie, flushing again. Once she had her blood flow under control, she turned to the person next to her. "Um... What's your... er... birthday?"

"December 29," answered a skinny boy from my house named Jordan Webber. "Josh, what's your favourite colour?" he asked his friend.

"Green," replied Josh. "Favourite... animal?" he asked the next person, but before Carla could answer, Professor Adams broke in.

"Come _on_, guys, think of better questions!" she ordered. "This isn't just supposed to be a get-to-know-you game. It's supposed to be fun, too! First really creative question earns their house twenty-five points! Mr -- wait. Is it okay if I just call everybody by their first names? It'll be easier."

There was a chorus of "Yeahs" and "Sure, why nots" and "Okays." Professor Adams nodded, satisfied. "Josh, try again."

"Erm... Ever gone into Knockturn Alley?"

"Lame!" announced Professor Adams. "But answer anyways, Carla."

"Nope," Carla said cheerfully. Then she turned to her neighbour -- Kaylee, whose nose was as red as a strawberry -- and asked, still in that cheerful voice, "Ever had a book thrown at your face, who threw it, what book, and why?"

Kaylee growled and Professor Adams laughed, "Ding ding ding, we have a winner! Twenty-five points to Ravenclaw! Now, Kaylee, answer the question!"

"Yes," growled Kaylee. "Rose Weasley. _A Beginner's Guide To Transfiguration._ I insulted Elle Taylor and Weasley's mother."

The room fell silent. Every eye in the room seemed to be on me, Rose, or Kaylee. I looked around at all the shocked faces; evidently, Professor Adams hadn't expected that answer. Kaylee was smirking at me and Rose.

"Why did you insult them?" asked Professor Adams in a quiet voice.

"They're Mudbloods," sneered Kaylee.

"And what difference does that make?" asked the teacher.

"Well, Mudbloods don't inherit magic, do they?" said Kaylee loftily. "They've stolen it from somewhere, right?"

"Yeah," said a black-haired Gryffindor girl from across the room. "My parents told me that's what You-Know-Who said."

"But there must be _some_ wizarding blood in everyone in the world, even Muggles," reasoned Josh. "It just doesn't come out in everybody. It's all in the genes, right?" He looked at Professor Adams inquiringly.

"That's a good point," agreed Professor Adams. "And it's quite possible. Of course," she added, "it's also possible that they've stolen in the magic. Now, for homework..." She grinned at the expressions mirrored froom face to face. "Six inches on your opinions of Muggleborns; did they steal their magic, or did they inherit it from somewhere way down the line? Due tomorrow in class. Class dismissed!"

"Absurd," complained Carla on the way down to dinner. "Six inches, all because I asked a stupid question!"

"Six inches," I said thoughtfully. "That's not even as much as a sheet of paper, to us Muggles. And besides, for six inches you can just write big to fill up the space, if you want. At home, they measure essays by the number of words."

After dinner, the four of us went up to the common room, where Ayla Wood was waiting for Kaylee and Rose to do their lines. While they wrote the same things over and over, Annie, Carla and I wrote our essays.

After Kaylee finished her lines, she went straight to bed without doing her homework. We stayed up late with Rose while she did her essay, laughing over Rose's extremely long scroll of parchment covered with handwriting.

_I will not throw my textbooks at other students' heads._

_I will not throw my textbooks at other students' heads._

_I will not throw my textbooks at other students' heads._

***

_**Author's Note: **__Took longer than I thought to get this up -- I'm more obsessed with the Sims 2 than I thought. :) Worked on Chapter Five last night, and again this morning. Should be up soon. I hope. Hope you're enjoying the story! Thanks to my loverly reviewers (not that I'm obsessed with reviews and need all to join my Review Crew or anything, I just like to say thanks for taking the time to give me feedback), cocogirl198, Chelsea2013, and MissCanada!_


	5. Fly

Chapter Five

The next morning, Carla cheerfully asked Kaylee how she'd done with her homework. Kaylee glared at her and shoveled more eggs in her mouth.

In Potions, we received our marks on our boil cures. Apparently, I'd managed to scrape up an E, whatever that meant. I asked Rose; she told me the grading system.

"O is Outstanding," she said in a superior voice. "A is Acceptable. Exceeds Expectations, E, is in between them. Those are the passing grades."

I looked at Kaylee, across the room. She was stuffing a slip of parchment into her bag, her face almost purple with rage.

"Poor Kaylee," giggled Rose. "Probably got a T."

"What's that stand for?" I wondered.

"Troll," explained Rose promptly.

Herbology was the same as the day before. Apparently, the older children had moved onto bigger and better things than repotting Mandrakes.

In Charms, we continued to work on _Alohomora_. A Slytherin boy and girl -- twins -- joined Carla in having performed the spell correctly. I didn't set the door on fire; instead, my wand somehow conjured a boxing glove, which punched a hole straight through the wood. I looked on this as an accomplishment.

"I mean, at least the boxing glove didn't have the threat of burning down the entire castle, right?" I told Rose, Annie and Carla over my grilled cheese sandwich at lunch. "And Professor Flitwick was able to fix it pretty easily."

"It took him about three minutes," Rose pointed out.

I resisted telling her that it would have taken my dad, a Muggle, several hours. Instead, I settled for saying, "Still, it's better than the eight it took him to fix your _second_ chicken."

Rose ignored me. "I wonder what McGonagall's got planned for us?" she said, eying the Headmistress curiously as she swept out of the Great Hall.

"I dunno," replied Annie, "but if we don't get moving, it'll be detention."

We got to class just on time. Professor McGonagall announced that we would be attempting real Transfiguration today; turning mice into frogs. Apparently, this was beginner magic, but nobody managed to perform it properly; however, Tanya Appel of Slytherin's mouse grew webbed feet halfway through the lesson.

More note-taking awaited us in History of Magic. By the time the bell rang, my left hand positively _ached._

When we reached Defence Against The Dark Arts, Professor Adams collected the homework. Somehow, Kaylee had managed to scrape together two or three inches on Muggleborns during the previous class (as the teacher went around the room, she was furiously copying Ralph Richardson's History of Magic notes). When Professor Adams asked Kaylee why she hadn't finished, Kaylee earned herself a detention before dinner on Saturday.

That class, we learned about the Great Battle of Hogwarts. From the sighs that echoed around the classroom, I gathered that this was a well-known story -- to everybody but me. It turned out to be about Harry Potter and his friends. Rose and Al, children of the heroes, shrunk down in their seats, eyes squeezed shut, as though they could disappear. We were told of the famous connection between the wands of Harry Potter and Lord Voldemort, both of which had a phoenix feather attained from Fawkes, a phoenix belonging to a previous Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore.

I was the only person taking notes.

After supper, it was brought to our attention that all first-years had Astronomy on Tuesday evenings. So at nine o'clock, we all headed up to the top of the Astronomy Tower with our telescopes. We spent two hours up there, peering through our telescopes under the stars and the supervision of Professor Mindbone.

The week continued, each day the same as the last. We learned about antidotes in Potions. In Herbology, we finished repotting the Mandrakes, and the class moved inside to learn the properties of plants. By Friday, most of the class had cottoned on to _Alohomora_. Before dismissing us on Thursday, Professor Flitwick announced that Friday we would continue to practice, and next week he would teach us _Wingardium Leviosa,_ the spell to make inanimate objects fly. At lunch, Rose told Annie, Carla and I the amusing story of how her father and Al's father had saved her mother from a troll in their first year by using _Wingardium Leviosa._ Apparently, Rose's dad used the spell on the troll's club, resulting in the club hitting the troll on the head and knocking it out.

We all still struggled with turning our mice into frogs; each class, Professor McGonagall was forced to bring in new mice, as yesterday's mice were maimed beyond magical repair. History of Magic always held more notes in store for us, and we continued to learn about the famous Harry Potter in Defence Against The Dark Arts: his struggle against Lord Voldemort, Voldemort's horcruxes, what they did, and what Voldemort used as shells for his horcruxes -- a ring made of something called a _Resurrection Stone_, a diary, a cup belonging to Helga Hufflepuff, Salazar Slytherin's locket, a strange crown called a _diadem_ that belonged to Rowena Ravenclaw, a snake named Nagini, and Harry Potter himself.

On Friday at breakfast, Al ventured over to the Ravenclaw table with his friend Scorpius to invite Rose, Annie, Carla and I to tea at Hagrid's. Al worried about this -- he wanted to bring lots of friends so that Hagrid would write to Al's father and tell him how many friends he was making, but on the other hand, he didn't want to overwhelm Hagrid with so many people. Rose managed to convince him that because she was technically already invited (and by Hagrid himself) that she could bring Carla, Annie and I, and he could bring Scorpius.

So after supper, the four of us met Al and Scorpius in the Entrance Hall and walked through the crisp autumn air to Hagrid's cabin.

The big man's shock registered on his face when he opened the door to six first-years, but he just let us all in and started pulling more mugs out of the cupboard. We spent almost two hours with Hagrid, chatting about how school was going so far and such. Finally, after cracking eight teeth between the six of us on Hagrid's rock-hard rock cakes (sensibly named, those things), Hagrid waved us off with a "Don' get caught by Filch, now!"

On Saturday morning, at eleven o'clock, all the first-years headed out to what Rose called a _Quidditch Pitch_ and met Professor Chang, a pretty woman who, according to Al, had dated his father in their fifth year, with disastrous results. Professor Chang announced that this would be our first flying lesson (my stomach dropped into my feet at those words).

We were told to pick a broom, and Professor Chang demonstrated what we were to do, holding out her left hand over the broom and saying in a firm voice, "Up!" The broom she stood over flew up into her hand.

"Up!" said everybody at once. A couple of peoples' brooms shot up happily into their hands, like Lizzie Adams, Scorpius Malfoy, and Carla; however, most of us had to repeat ourselves multiple times before our brooms jumped unwillingly into our waiting hands. Professor Chang told us to mount our brooms, and showed us the basics, like how to accelerate and steer.

At the end of the lesson, Professor Chang announced that after this lesson, we knew all the basics, so the class would become optional for the rest of the year.

"So are you going to do the lessons?" I asked my friends at lunch.

"Might as well," shrugged Carla, but Rose and Annie shook their heads. "Oh, come on, guys! Why not?" They didn't respond. "I don't want to be alone, though!"

"I doubt you'll be alone," Rose told her. "I'll bet you anything that Lizzie Adams is going to do it, and Scorpius Malfoy."

"And Janice Shay, from Hufflepuff," Annie added.

"And Elle," continued Rose with an impish grin.

"What?" I looked at her, startled.

"Oh, come on, Elle. You're a natural! Were either of you watching her?" she asked, looking from Annie to Carla and back.

"Me? _Fly_? Are you _kidding_ me?"

"It's just like those windowpanes," said Rose. "No, wait, that's not the right word. It's something with _panes_." She thought for a moment, then resorted to describing it. "It's... big," she said, scrunching up her face. "And you fly... Windowpanes, or something like that..."

"Airplanes," I supplied.

"Yes, that's it!" grinned Rose. "I knew I was close! But anyways, these _airplanes_... When you're in them, you fly, right?"

"I guess so."

"So a broom is just like that. Except _you_ control it!" she finished excitedly.

I glared at her. She smiled happily back at me. Carla stared at me hopefully.

"Fine," I grumbled. "I'll do it."

***

_**Author's Note:**__ Hope you guys are enjoying the story so far! I guilted my parents into letting me on the computer, even though I've already been on a lot, by whining about how my face feels like I have a fat lip from my mouth to my chin on the right side. I got two fillings about an hour ago. Except one of them is just a temporary cover or something like that, because the molar that the cavity is in isn't fully grown in yet, and the cavity is really deep. And then they took x-rays of my teeth, and just as we were leaving, they called me back in because they found something in the x-rays, and it turns out I have ANOTHER cavity! Grrrrrrrrr..._


	6. Gryffindor

Chapter Six

"You're doing it wrong," Rose told Annie. "It's a swish, not a jab."

"_Wingardium Leviosa,_" mumbled Annie, attempting a swish and accidentally poking herself in the eye. "Argh! I'm not _meant _to be in Ravenclaw!"

"Of course you are," said Carla kindly, patting Annie on the back. "The Sorting Hat _never_ makes mistakes. It knows _everything._"

"But, obviously, I don't. I thought you were supposed to be _smart_ to be in Ravenclaw!" cried Annie.

It was Tuesday of our second week at Hogwarts. I was in a good mood; on Sunday, I had sent Storm off to my parents with a lengthy scroll of parchment, and I was expecting a reply very soon.

A surprise awaited us when we returned to the common room after supper. The landing was filled with confused, scared people. At the front was Ayla Wood, one of our prefects.

"What's going on?" asked a skinny boy with glasses, arriving a few minutes after us.

"I'm going to get Professor McGonagall," muttered Ayla, squeezing past us and disappearing down the stairs. Rose and I shoved forwards and got halfway to the bird-shaped knocker before the group of students closed in around us, filling in the gaps they had made to allow Ayla through.

"The knocker isn't working," somebody whispered to their friend. "It won't ask anybody a question. And part of its beak is gone, look!"

Even though they weren't talking to me, I looked. The fourth-year was right -- about a third of the knocker's beak had been blasted off, giving an effect similar to that of a bomb field, and a piece of the door had gone, too, leaving a hole big enough for even an adult to wriggle through. A sixth-year close to the hole looked through.

"It's all ruined!" she reported. "The curtains are ripped to shreds, and the tables and chairs are lying in pieces around the room!"

There was a lot of muttering at this. I wondered briefly what the intruder had done to the dormitories. Would it be worse than the common room? Who had done this?

"Move aside, please," came Ayla's commanding voice as she pushed through the crowd, the Headmistress on her heels.

There was a silence lasting for several minutes while Professor McGonagall examined the door and the room beyond it. Then: "We will need to apply a proper password to Ravenclaw Tower," announced Professor McGonagall. "I never would have believed that anybody would... The fact of the matter is, a question simply isn't enough security... I myself entered the Tower shortly before the Great Battle of Hogwarts..." She looked around at all of us. "Stay here until I return," she ordered, and raced off.

We stayed frozen, the entire House gathered on the landing or on the stairs leading to it, until the Headmistress returned, three Professors on her tail. Professor Flitwick was not there, but the other Heads of House were.

"You will be staying in various dormitories around the school until yours are restored," Professor McGonagall announced.

Professor Slughorn stepped forward. "First-year boys, all third-years, fourth-year girls, and seventh-year girls, come with me," he said in his deep voice. "You'll be staying with Slytherin."

There was a lot of "Excuse me's" and "Oops! I'm sorry's" as the mentioned students filed down the stairs after the Potions Master, stepping on toes and bumping into people.

"Second-year girls, fourth-year boys, fifth-year girls, sixth-year boys, and seventh-year boys, you will be staying with Hufflepuff," said Professor Longbottom after Slughorn had disappeared with twenty-five students in tow, and led his own twenty-five refugees away.

Professor Adams, Head of Gryffindor, called to the rest of us ("First-year girls, second-year boys, fifth-year boys, and sixth-year girls") to follow her to Gryffindor Tower. Rose, Annie, Carla and I shuffled along on the Professor's heels, while Kaylee stuck to the back of the group in the hopes of passing unnoticed.

As we approached a blank wall on the seventh floor holding only a portrait of an extremely large-looking woman, Professor Adams announced, "This is the portrait of the Fat Lady, and the entrance to Gryffindor Tower." Her voice awoke the dozing portrait. By now I had grown somewhat used to the walking, talking paintings of the wizarding world.

"Password?" mumbled the Fat Lady, her eyes still shut tight. "Oh! Abigail, who are all these _Ravenclaws_?"

"They're to stay with the Gryffindors for a while; their Tower has been demolished," replied Professor Adams. "_Venomous Tentacula._"

"But why us Gryffindors?" asked the Fat Lady, swinging forwards to admit us. As she swung shut, almost catching Kaylee's foot, she cried, "And you know that you just gave them the password!"

The Gryffindor common room was decorated with red and gold hangings and filled with happy, chattering students. As the Fat Lady's portrait clicked shut like a door, everybody froze and the room fell silent.

"What are _they_ doing here?" said several voices at once.

As soon as it was silent, Professor Adams answered her House. "Somebody has broken into and demolished Ravenclaw Tower," she told them. "And if I find out that it was a Gryffindor, the culprit will have detention every day for the next three years." Her voice was deadly serious. She paused to stare at a redheaded sixth-year who was eying Ayla excitedly. "Now, first-year girls will be staying with first-year girls, second-year boys with second-year boys, et cetera." Somebody groaned. "I don't care if you don't have enough room, Miller," she snapped, glaring at Annie's brother, "you will _make_ room. And _no pranks_. That means you, Weasley," she continued, glaring at the redheaded boy. "Goodnight!" she called over her shoulder, disappearing out the portrait hole. The minute Professor Adams was gone, Ayla flew across the room into the redheaded boy's arms.

Lizzie Adams came up to us. "So apparently, your prefect is too engrossed with her boyfriend to show you where you'll be staying, so I'll do it," she said, and led us up a set of stairs, stopping on the third landing. "Here we are," she said. "Sorry, but you'll have to take the floor. I'm sure we can get one of the seventh-years to conjure up some air mattresses or something." A spark of an idea brightened her eyes. "I'll go get Gabriella!"

She came back a few minutes later, with a black-haired seventh-year wearing the Head Girl badge.

"All right, Lizzie, will you tell me what you want now?" said the older girl.

"They need sleeping bags or air mattresses or something, Gabby," explained Lizzie, waving vaguely in our direction.

"Don't -- call -- me -- Gabby," grumbled Gabriella, but she muttered something, and five sleeping bags popped into existence.

"Thanks, Gabby!" smiled Lizzie. Gabriella mumbled something and disappeared back downstairs.

A blonde girl burst into the room. "Lizzie! You'll never guess it! I was at detention, and when I came back, there were a whole bunch of Ravenclaws in the common room!"

"Their Tower's been broken into," whispered Lizzie. "They have to stay here for a few days. That's what Abbie said, anyways."

"Oh, Professor Adams knows?"

"Yes, yes, Abbie knows," said Lizzie impatiently.

"Well, I guess that's okay, then. Are these ones staying with us?"

"_These ones_ have names, Marie," sighed Lizzie. "This is Elle, Rose, Carla, Annie and Kaylee. They're in our Potions and Defence Against the Dark Arts. Guys, this is Marie Filpott."

"Hi," said Marie excitedly. She seemed to be a very outgoing person. "Which one of you is going to sleep by _my_ bed?" She grabbed Rose's hand and a sleeping bag, dragging the both of them over to one of the four-poster beds. "You can go _here._ We are going to be _such_ good fri--"

There was a sudden slurping noise from the landing, as though somebody were sucking through a straw. Looking out the door, I noticed that the stairs were transformed into a slide.

"Oooohh..." Lizzie and Marie giggled in synchronization, and raced out of the room, leaping feet-first onto the slide and zooming down it. With a shrug, Rose, Annie, Carla and I followed.

Lizzie and Marie were on the rug at the bottom, and Marie was lecturing Albus Potter and Scorpius Malfoy.

"Albus," Marie was saying in a very official-sounding voice. "You _know_ that boys aren't allowed in the _girls'_ dormitories!"

"But you're allowed in ours!" protested Scorpius.

"Well, _obviously_, boys _aren't_ to be trusted," said Marie loftily, and flounced away to talk to Ivonette Randall.

"Rose!" cried Al, throwing his arms around his cousin.

"Rose?" Another black-haired boy appeared out of nowhere, saw Rose, and threw _his_ arms around her, too.

"I feel just a little bit squished," mumbled Rose in a very squished, pointed tone, and they let go of her. "Guys, these are my cousins. Well, you already know Al. This is James, Al's brother. No matter what he tells you, don't believe him, all right? He's only a second-year; he doesn't know everything."

"I feel insulted!" James said loudly. Then, to us, he said, "And what are Rose's beautiful friends' names?"

Rose rolled her eyes.

"I'm Annie," piped up Annie. "And this is Carla, and Elle."

We all stood around at the bottom of the slide-stairs for a while, until somebody flew down the slide and knocked me over. As I was about to hit the ground, a pair of arms caught me. I looked up to see who it was.

"Careful, there," grinned James, looking down at me. "Don't want to bump that pretty head of yours." Then he set me softly on my feet.

After that, every time that I glanced towards James, he quickly averted his eyes, as though he had been staring at me the whole time.

***

_**Author's Note: **__Do you think James is too cheesy and stuff, or was it good?? Anyways, if I do say so myself, I am on a ROLL with the chapters. Except that I've barely started chapter seven at all yet. Anyways, please don't rush me, if that's what you were planning to do. :P And thanks to the same reviewers, as always -- cocogirl198, Chelsea2013, MissCanada, you guys are awesome!_


	7. Passwords

Chapter Seven

The next morning when I woke up, I didn't know where I was. This wasn't my bedroom back home. This wasn't my bed in Ravenclaw Tower. Then I heard Emily MacDonald asking me how I'd slept, and it all came rushing back. The destruction in Ravenclaw Tower, the ruined knocker's beak, the Fat Lady, the Gryffindor common room.

We got no word on the condition of Ravenclaw Tower, although on the third day of being refugees, Victoire Weasley, Rose's beautiful seventh-year cousin, whispered to us at supper that she and her best friend, Alyson Kree, had snuck up to the Tower in their free period. The hole in the door had been filled in, and the knocker's beak repaired, but before they could try giving a password, they were chased off by Professor Isaacs, the Muggle Studies teacher.

Friday at breakfast, Storm flew into the Great Hall with all the other owls, bringing a fat envelope from my parents. I was excited at the prospect of a long letter, until I realized that it was only fat because they'd stuffed in two dozen hard candies. In reality, the letter was very short.

_Dear Elle,__  
We are glad to hear all about your classes and your new friends. We're sorry it took so long to reply, but Storm had to fly all the way across the ocean to get to us! That's right! We are in NORTH AMERICA! We've sent a hint as to where we are.  
Love, Mum and Dad_

That was it? Five measly sentences?

I looked back into the envelope and pulled out a bright blue Mickey Mouse sucker, with another note taped to it. I pulled the note off to read it.

_DISNEYLAND!_ _It's not quite as big as Disneyworld, but there are lots of fun rides. It's in California, across the entire continent from its 'big brother.' Enjoy!_

I crumpled up the note and sighed. The moment that train went around that bend, carrying their only daughter away to a magical boarding school for an entire year, what do they do? They board some stinking plane and fly across the world to Disneyland! And what do they send said only daughter at magical boarding school? One lousy Mickey Mouse sucker!

"What's _that?_" asked Annie interestedly, leaning towards me and pointing at the candies scattered around my plate.

"Muggle candy," I mumbled. "Don't chew it." I tossed her a green candy, one hand clenched in a fist around the stupid sucker. I stroked Storm's flecked wings and sent her to the Owlery for some well-deserved rest. An _ocean_.

"And what is this envelope _made_ of?" wondered Carla. She rubbed her fingers over it. "It's definitely not parchment..."

"It's _paper_," I whispered. "Want a candy?"

Over the course of the day, I distributed my stupid little candies -- one to Ayla, one to every one of my teachers. To James and Al and Lizzie and the other Gryffindors. I gave away candy until I had only the Mickey Mouse sucker left.

After everybody else in the Gryffindor dormitory had gone to sleep, I sat on my sleeping bag beside Emily's bed and held the sucker in my hands, trying to decide what to do with it. I sat there for two hours, seething at my parents and almost crushing the sucker to pieces. Finally, I placed the sucker next to my sleeping bag and tried to go to sleep.

***

The Ravenclaw Tower was taking a long time to get fixed. I snuck up the stairs many times, accompanied by many different people -- Rose, Carla, Annie, Lizzie, James, Al, Marie, Emily... But each time that we got to the landing, a staff member would chase us away before we saw anything.

Halfway through the month of October -- nearly a month after the break-in -- a large, official-looking notice appeared on the bulletin board in the Gryffindor common room.

_The first Hogsmeade trip_

_will be on the thirty-first_

_of October._

"What's Hogsmeade?" I asked as everybody went down to breakfast.

"It's sort of like a little town," explained James. "Shops and such. But you can only go if you have permission and you're at least in third year, so we have to wait a while before we can go."

That day at lunch, Professor McGonagall stood up and tapped her glass with a fork. The buzz of the Great Hall stilled as we all turned to look at her, confused -- announcements were usually made at supper.

"I am pleased to announce that Ravenclaw Tower has been restored!" she called out happily. "After supper, all of the Ravenclaws may return to their own dormitories. Please take any belongings with you. Miss Wood, Mr Halliday, as Ravenclaw prefects, I will need to speak with you in my office directly after lunch." She sat down again, and the conversation resumed.

Moments after McGonagall left the Great Hall, Ayla and Alec, our prefects, stood up and followed.

As much as I missed Ravenclaw Tower, I was starting to feel at home with the Gryffindors. I kind of didn't want to leave.

But after supper, I dutifully returned to the Gryffindor common room, picked up my Mickey Mouse sucker, gave Lizzie's robes back to her, and trudged back down to the fourth floor to the spiral staircase that led to Ravenclaw Tower.

Ayla and Alec were standing by the newly restored door, still with no knob, filled by only the knocker that had always been there. They whispered something to all of us as we passed -- "_Felix Felicis._"

Rose knocked on the door like she usually did, and the same voice that the bird-knocker had always had -- a soft, cool, female voice -- spoke. But instead of asking a lengthy question as usual, the knocker spoke only one word.

"Password?"

Rose glanced back at Ayla, who nodded, as if to encourage her.

"_Felix Felicis?_" Rose raised her voice at the end, as though asking a question. The door swung open.

The furniture was different than the last time I had entered our House's common room. The floor was a light wood, as opposed to the midnight-blue carpet -- the walls seemed to have absorbed the floor's old colour. Chandeliers dangled from the ceiling, glittering with strings of tiny, sparkling diamonds. The fireplace had a fire just starting up in it, and a large portrait of Rowena Ravenclaw, the House's founder, hanging above it. The majestic-looking lady gazed down at the students filing through the door with raised eyebrows, a slight frown on her face. The couches and armchairs were a black, shiny leather, and the tables were also painted black. The doorways leading to the dormitories had been covered over with more doors, black like the tables. Daphne Cameron, Ayla's best friend, stood beside the girls' door, while Gary Yarrow stood by the boys'.

"There's a password here, too. They've upped security since the break-in," whispered Daphne as we approached. "The password's _Abyssinian shrivelfig._" She knocked on the black wood, and a portrait beside the door, depicting of a mermaid who bore a slight resemblance to Ariel, opened her mouth and spoke in a high-pitched voice.

"Password?"

"Um..." I glanced at my friends. "_Abyssinian shrivelfig._"

The door swung inwards and revealed another spiral staircase.

"You guys are still at the bottom," Daphne told us, and waved to us as we started downwards. "And, uh, _screechsnap._"

"I hope that wasn't _another_ password for the actual dormitory," mumbled Carla as we started down the stairs.

But when we reached the dormitory door and Carla tried to turn the knob, another portrait -- a Chinese Fireball -- spoke to us. "Not so fast! You'll need to give me the password first."

Carla groaned. "There are too many passwords! This is mad!"

"Password," the dragon reminded her.

"_Screechsnap,_" said Rose quickly, before Carla could pull the painting off the wall and chuck it out the window which, so conveniently, was set into the wall beside her.

"Correct!" said the rather talkative dragon, and when Carla tried the knob again, it opened easily.

The bedspreads were the same, but the four-poster beds had different carvings on the posts -- giving us a clue that they were new beds. New shelves had replaced the old ones, although they were still in the same places. Monique's cage was gone, and my books and souvenirs as well. The textbooks had been replaced, and were sitting in a neat pile on the bedside table, but my favourite novels had disappeared forever.

I sat down on the bed, tears threatening to burst out of my eyes at any second. All my childhood memories -- Africa, North America, Australia -- they were all gone.

"Elle?"

I glanced up to see Rose sit down on the bed beside me.

"If you want, I can write to Uncle George. He'll send you a new Pygmy Puff."

I shook my head stubbornly and turned away from her.

Rose sighed and stood up. "My things are gone, too, Elle," she whispered. "It's not just you."

I just shut my curtains around my new bed and turned off my lamp.

***

_**Author's Note: **__It's been a while since I last updated, hasn't it?? Ah, well, here's the next chapter for you guys! Thanks to MissCanada, Chelsea2013, HPobsessssssed7 and Ninianna Simms for your reviews last chapter! You guys are awesome!!! 3_


	8. Birthday

Chapter Eight

Instead of writing to my parents and forcing Storm to fly halfway across the world again, I wrote a long letter to my grandmother -- my mother's mother, who had been informed of the letter I'd gotten during the summer and knew everything -- telling her all about the break-in at Ravenclaw Tower, staying with the Gryffindors, and the loss of all of my personal possessions -- clothes, books, and all. I waited every morning at breakfast for Storm to fly in with Grandma's reply, but went to Potions, disappointed, each and every time.

Four days after Storm had left to go to Grandma's place, I was sulking on my bed in the dormitory, doing homework (twelve inches on the properties of Devil's Snare). The others sat on their respective beds, aside from Kaylee, who preferred to spend as little time in our company as possible, and therefore completed her homework in the common room.

There had been an irritating tapping noise for the past ten minutes. I was just looking up with a glare on my face, preparing to yell at Annie, who had an annoying habit of tapping her shoes on her footboard, when Carla cried, "Look!"

I glanced towards her. One quill was stuck over her ear, and another into her hair, giving the effect of a bird with most of its feathers pulled out. A third quill was gripped in her right hand. All seemed normal, but her left hand was pointing at the wide window.

"Storm!"

I leapt out of my bed and rushed to the window, flinging it open so that Storm could fly in and land on the bed that I had just been occupying.

"Somebody got a big package," sang Annie, giggling.

I frowned at her. "That's not even funny. Not in the slightest." I untied the package from around Storm's leg and the letter from her other leg.

***

_Dear Elle,_

_I'm sorry to hear about your tower being broken into, honey. I hope it doesn't happen again. Whatever you do, be careful, sweet pea, all right? _

_Now, I know that your parents are away in California right now -- California, can you believe it! -- and I'm glad that you thought of your owl when you sent me that letter. I got most of your other clothes from your house when I went to water the plants for your parents, and some of your other books. I know what some of your favourites are because you always bring them to my house, so I bought them and put them in the package as well, and some brownies that I made. I hope they don't get too squished. Enjoy your brownies, and share them with your friends!_

_If you need anything else, just send your lovely little owl to me again, dearie, and I'll send you your things as soon as I can._

_Love, Grandma_

_***  
_

I put the letter on the bedside table and turned to the gigantic package. I ripped open the brown paper and started sorting through the things Grandma had sent me. The brownies -- squished, but probably still good -- went next to the letter, and I hung my clothes in the closet. There were some things I didn't recognize mixed in there. Apparently, Grandma had gone shopping for me. I really liked her better than Granddad and Nana, Dad's parents -- they were too strict, but Grandma was perfect. Just the kind of sweet old lady that you imagine when you think of a grandmother.

With glee, I pulled out a few of my favourite books that had gotten demolished in the break-in, with price stickers stuck to the back. Grandma never took those off like I did. I put all the books on my shelf.

"Mmmmm, brownies!" said Rose, getting up from her bed and starting towards me.

"Nope!" I said happily. "Me first!"

I had to let them have a few brownies, of course, but I got most of them. I hid the leftovers in my bedside table for later and started on my homework again, much less glum than I had been ten minutes before.

***

Despite the new, annoying security in Ravenclaw Tower, I was now happy. I didn't have to borrow other peoples' robes anymore, I could read before bed -- something that relaxed me, making it easier to fall asleep -- and I was just downright gleeful for the next week.

Halloween dawned bright and sunny, as if summer had decided to come back and chase winter away. When I opened my eyes, Rose, Annie and Carla were gathered around my bed.

"HAPPY BIRTHDAY!" they shouted excitedly.

"Shut up!" mumbled Kaylee from her bed. "I'm trying to _sleep_."

We ignored her.

"Open your presents!" urged Annie, pointing excitedly at the pile of wrapped gifts at the foot of my bed.

"No, no, no. Let's have the rest of those brownies!" pleaded Rose.

"Presents!"

"Brownies!"

"Presents!"

"Brownies!"

"Presents!"

"Shut up!" said Carla. "Let the birthday girl decide."

"Um..." I looked from Rose to Annie and back again. "How about we do both of those later? I'm starving, and brownies aren't really a good breakfast...?"

"Spoilsport! Open those presents _now!_" ordered Annie. "This one first!" She picked up a wrapped package and threw it at me.

"Careful!" Rose nearly shouted.

I examined the tag, which announced that the gift was 'from Rose Weasley to Elle Taylor'.

The box-shaped package turned out to be a cage with a bright yellow Pygmy Puff inside it, complete with food and water bowls and a little wheel for it to run around on.

"You can name her," grinned Rose.

"Soleil," I decided instantly.

The three of them looked at me blankly.

"French for 'sun,'" I explained.

"Perfect!" Carla said happily. "Now open mine."

Carla had given me a load of sweets. "They're from Honeydukes, in Hogsmeade. My brother Clinton got them when he went to Hogsmeade. I gave him some money to get them, and here you are!" she said excitedly.

From Annie, I received a beautiful leather-bound book full of empty white pages, a dark blue quill and colour-changing ink. My parents had sent me a Mickey Mouse bobblehead and a new book called _The Faerie Path_. I put the book on my shelf and the bobblehead on the bedside table next to Grandma's letter, Soleil's cage and the uneaten sucker.

Grandma had sent me some more clothes, some chocolate chip cookies, and a blue scarf that she had knit herself, according to the note. I was surprised to find presents that were wrapped in red and gold at the bottom of the pile. The first was from Al. It contained a wizard book called _Flying With The Cannons_, about a Quidditch team called the Chudley Cannons. James had given me a package of joke items -- a few fake wands, a load of Dungbombs, some self-shuffling playing cards, and a Fanged Frisbee. Rose was angry about the Frisbee because she said they were banned from Hogwarts. The final package was a joint present from Lizzie Adams, Marie Filpott, and Emily MacDonald, who had given me a talking hand mirror. I looked into the glass, and the mirror oooohhhed and aaahhhed and said that I looked beautiful.

Rose and Annie somehow convinced me to give them each a brownie before breakfast, and within moments, all of them were gone. They tried to persuade me to break in the cookies, but I downright refused and shoved them out the door so we could all go to breakfast.

Classes ran the same as any other day. Rose told me all about how they decorated the Great Hall for supper. I told her about how Muggles dressed up and ran around the neighborhood asking for candy. Rose, Annie and Carla found that very amusing.

When we walked into the Great Hall before supper, it had been drastically changed. At lunch, the Great Hall had looked exactly the same as always. Apparently, the prefects had all gotten out of their afternoon classes on account of having to come to the Great Hall and decorate it. Candles floated around the room, glowing brightly. Also hanging by invisible, magical ropes from the ceiling were gigantic pumpkins, so big that I could stretch out and sleep inside of one. They had been carved into huge jack-o'-lanterns with faces -- funny faces, scary faces, happy faces, sad faces -- and more candles sat inside them, casting an eerie orange glow over patches of the Great Hall. More pumpkins, this time tiny ones, sat periodically along the tables, a candle in each of them, and the ceiling depicted a black sky with little stars twinkling in it.

After dessert, we were all sent back to our common rooms. We stayed there, doing our homework, for a while. Then Victoire Weasley and her best friend, Aly Kree, came up to us and whispered that they were going to go sneak around the castle, scaring the prefects, and did we want to come? I thought the idea was kind of stupid, but Rose, Annie and Carla were all going, and I didn't want be left behind, so I went with them.

Unfortunately, we couldn't find any prefects anywhere.

"This is ridiculous," I whispered as we crept down a corridor for the fourth time. "I'm going back to the common room."

"What are you talking about?" hissed Annie. "Isn't this fun? It's your birthday, Elle. Don't ruin this."

"Yeah, because I really want my birthday present to be detention," I whispered sarcastically.

"Come on, guys," muttered Aly, being the black-haired, daring seventh-year that she was. "Stop arguing. We'll get caught."

"Come out, come out, wherever you are," screeched a voice. "I know you're there! I heard you talking!"

"See?" whispered Aly furiously. "Filch! I told you we'd get caught. Help me find someplace to hide, all right?" She started pacing up and down the corridor. All the while, Filch's footsteps echoed along the stone walls and floor, announcing his arrival.

"Here's a door!" hissed Victoire, opening a wooden door and sticking her head in to check that the room beyond was empty. "Come on, get in!" She shoved us in and shut the door behind her with a soft click.

"What is this place?" whispered Carla, looking around.

"Looks like a broom closet," said Victoire. "Now be quiet. I need to listen, so I can hear when the coast is clear."

After a few minutes, she nodded and turned the doorknob, pushing the door open an inch or two, just enough so that she could peer through. "He's gone," she announced. "Let's go back to the common room. We aren't having any luck finding prefects, anyways."

My heart raced as we sped back to the common room barefoot. At the door, Aly knocked softly and whispered the password. "_Felix Felicis_."

I let out a sigh of relief when we entered the common room. No trouble for us tonight.

"Ahem."

We raised our eyes to see Ayla, emerald green eyes narrowed at us, with her hands on her hips.

"Just where have you been?"

"Um, well, I, uh..." Victoire stuttered. "We, erm..."

"We were trying to find prefects to scare, but we couldn't find any and Filch almost caught us and we hid in a broom closet," blurted Rose.

Annie hit her.

"Detention," sighed Ayla. "You'll all be doing lines. You aren't supposed to be out in the corridors after ten o'clock! Victoire, Aly, you should know better." She shook her head at us and turned away. "Saturday, after breakfast, the table by the fireplace. All of you had better be there!"

Victoire and Aly sighed in unison. "Rose! Why can't you keep your mouth shut?" snapped Victoire, turning to her cousin. "I was just about to come up with something good!"

"What, like 'um, well, poor Rose was too scared to go to the bathroom, um, alone, with it being night and all, erm, so, we all went with, um, her'?" said Rose, raising her eyebrows. "Don't think I don't remember."

"It worked," protested Victoire.

"Yeah, on Hugo, big deal," said Rose dismissively. "He was only six."

Victoire glared at her cousin and stormed off towards the girls' dormitories, leaving Rose smirking after her.

***

_**Author's Note: **__All right, so it's kind of a pointless chapter, but still, it was fun to write. I mean, Elle has to have a birthday, right?? And Halloween would be an awesome birthday in the Muggle world -- candy AND presents. Jeez, I wish I had a grandma like Elle's. Sending brownies and cookies in the mail. Insane. Seriously, my grandma needs to be like that. ;)_


	9. Christmas

Chapter Nine

After that day, I refused to stray from the common room after-hours, terrified by the 250 lines that Ayla had made us do. November blurred quickly into December, and before I knew it, I was on the Hogwarts Express again, going to Grandma's for Christmas; my parents had decided to stay in America for the majority of the year. I bitterly told myself that they just wanted to stay away from me. Who needed them, anyways?

Rose, Annie and Carla taught me how to play a game called 'Exploding Snap' while we were on the train. Our compartment drew a crowd until it was full to the point of bursting as the noisy game attracted more and more people -- Al & Scorpius, James, Lizzie, Marie & Emily, Victoire & Aly. When the train pulled into King's Cross, we took turns getting our things and stepping on toes on the way out of the compartment.

Rose's parents, Mr and Mrs Weasley, stood next to Mr and Mrs Potter. Both mothers held the hand of a younger child -- a boy for the Weasleys, a girl for the Potters. I noticed the owner of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes standing close by with his wife, hugging Fred Weasley, Ayla's boyfriend, and Molly, one of Shannon's friends from the train. Farther off stood a scarred man and a beautiful blonde-haired woman.

"Maman, Dad!" cried Victoire, running towards them. After greeting her parents, she turned to a mousy-haired boy with hazel eyes and flung her arms around him.

"See, look!" cried James, who was just emerging from the train. "I told you about Teddy and Victoire!"

"Yes, yes," sighed his mother in amusement. "Al, how are you liking Hogwarts?"

I looked around for Grandma, but she didn't seem to have arrived yet, so I stuck with Rose, who was enthusiastically greeting her parents and her brother, Hugo, introducing them to Annie, Carla and I.

"Elle!"

I turned around. "Grandma!" I hugged her excitedly and started talking pointlessly about absolutely nothing at all. I let her introduce herself to my friends and their families, and then she and Rose's mother explained telephones to Rose and exchanged phone numbers. By the time that Grandma, Storm, Soleil and I were in the car, I was clutching a slip of parchment with the Weasleys' phone number on it; Mrs Weasley was Muggleborn, like me, and insisted on keeping a telephone in her house so that she could contact her parents, who lived in Australia. At least I'd be able to keep in touch with _one_ of my friends during the holidays.

On the way to Grandma's house, she told me that Granddad and Nana, Dad's parents, were in Paris for Christmas this year, so we would be spending the holidays alone, as Mum and Dad were also away.

I had missed Grandma -- I hadn't seen her in person since graduation from grade school last year.

That night, the telephone rang. I answered it. "Hello?"

"_Elle?_" shouted a voice. I held the phone away from my ear.

"_Don't shout, Rosie,_" called another voice that also crackled through the earpiece.

"_Sorry!_" Rose shouted.

"Rose!" I hissed. "Would you please stop yelling!"

"_Hi,_" said Rose sheepishly. "_How's your holiday going so far?_"

"Good, I guess. I wouldn't know, really. I've only been home for three hours, you know," I reminded her. "Granddad and Nana are in Paris, and Mum and Dad in America, though, so me and Grandma are alone for Christmas this year," I explained.

"_Did you hear that?_" Rose said excitedly, then relayed what I'd said to her parents. She came back to the phone a moment later. "_Mum and Dad want you and your Grandma to come over for Christmas!_" she yelled excitedly. "_Uncle Harry and Aunt Ginny are bringing James and Al and Lily, and everybody's going to be there! Granddad and Grandma, and Victoire and her mum and dad, and Uncle Charlie, and Uncle Percy and Aunt Audrey, and Uncle George and Aunt Angelina and Fred and Molly, too! Can you come? Can you?_"

"How do you keep track of all those relatives?" I asked, amused. "One minute." I went to find Grandma, carrying the cordless phone with me. Within minutes, it was all arranged. We were going to leave for the Weasleys' on the twenty-third, in two days, and stay until the twenty-seventh. The one thing that I was sad about was that Mr and Mrs Weasley didn't have enough room for Annie and Carla to come, too; although I supposed that they had their own families to celebrate with. Rose told me that I was to share her room, and Grandma would have the guest room.

The next day, Grandma and I went Christmas shopping. We started in the regular Muggle stores, which I found a little bit boring after having gone to Diagon Alley. This thought sparked an idea in my mind. Why get everybody Muggle things for Christmas if I didn't have to? And so I dragged Grandma with me to Charing Cross Road and Diagon Alley, where she became infatuated with the witches and wizards bustling about. I bought presents for as many people as I could think of.

I sent Storm off with Annie and Carla's presents. I air-mailed Granddad and Nana's to their hotel in Paris, as they didn't know about the letter and everything that had followed after it. They didn't contact the family much. I saved Mum and Dad's present, planning to give it to them when they picked me up from Platform 9 3/4 in June. I bought things for everybody that Rose had mentioned, basing my selections on what she had told me about her large family. And, of course, I bought something for Grandma while she was in the washroom.

On the twenty-third, I took a Tupperware container off the top of the fridge and carried it into the living room to stand in front of the fireplace. The container was full of green-ish sand, something I'd bought in Diagon Alley, called Floo powder. Grandma followed me, eager to attempt travel by magic. The witch who owned the shop had been kind enough to write down step-by-step instructions for me. Rose had sent her father's owl, a cute, tiny little thing called Pig, to me with the address of her house, number seven, Privet Drive. She had mentioned in the letter that it was across the street and one over from the house where her Uncle Harry had grown up with his cruel Muggle aunt, uncle and cousin.

I took a pinch of the Floo powder in my hand and threw it into the flames. Grandma let out a childish squeal of delight when the orange flames swiftly turned emerald green. Holding Grandma's hand tight, I stepped into the fire, yelling, "Number seven, Privet Drive!"

Strangely enough, the flames didn't hurt at all. Though they licked around my clothes, which should have been on fire by now, they felt warm and comfortable. Grandma and I started to spin, faster and faster and faster. I saw glimpses of other rooms as we spun, a kitchen, a sitting room, another sitting room... The rooms we saw blurred together, and suddenly we stopped, falling out of a fireplace, entirely different than the one we'd been in a moment before, and onto a fluffy white carpet.

"Mum! They're here!"

I looked up from where my face was buried in the carpet to see Rose, looking at us excitedly, as though people fell out of her fireplace every day.

"Good, good!" Mrs Weasley rushed into the room and helped us up.

"Sorry about the ashes," I said politely, gesturing to the blackened carpet.

"Nonsense, it'll be gone in a jiffy," she said, and waved her wand in the carpet's direction. The soot seemed to soak back into the carpet and disappeared. My clothes also seemed to absorb the black ashes, sucking them away. A moment later, it was as if they had never been there.

Rose hugged me. "Come on, I'll show you my room!" she said happily. Mrs Weasley was leading Grandma into the kitchen, announcing that she had just made tea, and would Grandma like any?

We raced up two flights of stairs and through an open doorway into a small room with just enough space for a bed, desk, and wardrobe, with enough space between the bed and the wall for me to stretch out properly. I wondered vaguely how comfortable the floor would be.

"Dad's going to set the camping bed up," said Rose, pointing to the wooden floor where I was to sleep. "We'll be cozy as kittens. At least, that's what Mum says. Hey, let's see if Dad and Hugo will play Quidditch with us!" she suggested. "Mum put a special charm on the backyard, so it's really big and no Muggles can see it from their windows and such. Come on, I'll show you!"

The backyard looked normal from the window in Rose's bedroom, but as we stepped out the back door, it seemed to enlarge itself, and a little, clear bubble of dry air seemed to float up from the ground and surround the yard. Rose led me to the shed in the corner of the yard and flung the door open. "Ta-da!" she cried.

The shed was full of brooms. Not the racing quality of brooms I'd seen in the window of Quality Quidditch Supplies yesterday, but nice brooms all the same. "This one's mine," said Rose, pulling out a broom with faded silver lettering on the handle. _Cleansweep 16_. "You can use Mum's. She never uses it." She pulled out an even older broom with a word on the handle, so faded that it wasn't even there anymore. "We're not supposed to have brooms because we're first-years, but that's only at Hogwarts. At home we're allowed to do anything we want. Except magic. If you do too much magic out of school when you're underage, you can get expelled. Uncle Harry almost got expelled once. He blew up his aunt like a balloon."

I stared at her.

"And one time a house-elf made a cake levitate and Uncle Harry got in trouble for it. But don't let Mum hear us talking about house-elves," whispered Rose. "She's still into spew."

"Spew?"

"S.P.E.W. She started it when she was in Hogwarts. Society for the Protection of Elvish Welfare. All to benefit the elves that work in the kitchens."

As we mounted the brooms and flew around the yard a couple of times, Rose talked the entire time. I discovered that she was a lot more talkative at her own home than at Hogwarts.

Mr Weasley came out, laughing, with Rose's brother, and got out a couple more brooms and something that looked like a suitcase. He opened it to reveal two black balls struggling against leather straps, a bigger red ball, and a tiny blob under a piece of cloth that fluttered a lot. Rose and I landed and Mr Weasley explained Quidditch to me. We decided to go boys against girls, and I was Seeker, while Rose was the Keeper and the Chaser. Hugo was the Seeker on the other team. My goal was to catch the little golden ball with the fluttery wings, which Mr Weasley held tight in his hand until the game began. Hugo caught the Snitch, the golden ball, in the end, but it was still a load of fun. Rose told me that Quidditch was even more fun when more of the family was there to play. I couldn't wait!

On Christmas morning, Rose and I woke up to the sounds of voices in the sitting room. We raced downstairs, still in our pajamas, to find the Mr Harry Potter himself climbing out of the fireplace with his daughter, Lily. Al arrived next, then James, and finally Mrs Potter, Mr Weasley's sister. She hugged Mr and Mrs Weasley and waved her wand over herself and her children, clearing away the ashes, then sat down on the sofa.

James took in my pajamas with the bunnies all over them and quietly said hello. I was surprised; I had never heard James be quiet before. He propped his broomstick -- the bright gold lettering read_ Lightningbolt;_ his broom was a lot newer than Rose's -- up against the wall and chased Hugo around the house, threatening to hug him.

Not even five minutes after the Potters arrived, a blue pinpoint of light appeared in the middle of the sitting room, growing larger and larger and larger until there was a _pop!_ and four people appeared out of the light -- the owner of Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, his wife, and their children, all clutching an old Daily Prophet.

"What was that?" I whispered to Rose, as her Uncle threw the newspaper into the fireplace.

"A Portkey," she explained. "It's got a spell on it, so that at a certain time it creates some kind of portal into the place it's been set to go to. You can use the spell on anything -- tin cans, old newspapers, hairbrushes... Anything, like I said. It's the opposite from a Horcrux in that way -- you want to use something pointless for a Portkey, so that Muggles don't pick it up and stuff, you want them to just think it's trash. But Horcruxes are usually things that mean something to the person that made them. Anyways, back to Portkeys. What happens is you have to be touching it at the time that it leaves, or you'll be left behind. It sucks you up and deposits you where you're supposed to be!"

Only a minute after they had arrived, three people popped into existence where there had only been air before -- Victoire and her parents. Rose whispered to me that they had Apparated, which was a way for wizards to transport themselves. You had to be a certain age and you had to get a lisence to do it, kind of like driving a car for Muggles.

The flames turned emerald green as Rose was explaining this to me, and a form appeared in the fireplace, spinning like a top. A moment later, he tumbled out of the fireplace and waved his wand over himself.

"Teddy!" cried Victoire, and threw her arms around him, like she had done at the train station.

"See?" cried James as he chased Hugo through the room.

Just as the flames returned to their normal colour, green overtook them again and another form clambered out of the fireplace -- a tall, balding redhaired man with many grey hairs and glasses. The second that he was out of the way, the fire roared again and spat out a shorter lady, also with red hair.

"Mum! Dad!" Mrs Potter greeted them, and hugged her mother. Mr Weasley also hugged his parents, and the other Mr Weasley, the owner of the joke shop, and the third Mr Weasley also, Victoire's father.

There were too many Weasleys.

There was a knock at the front door ten minutes later, and when Rose returned from answering the door, she was accompanied by another redheaded man with horned glasses, and a pretty brunette lady with blue eyes. The man promptly shook hands with Rose's grandparents and all of his siblings and their spouses.

"Charlie should be here any minute," said Rose's mum, wringing her hands anxiously. "I don't know why he's so late."

"Give him a break, Hermione," said her husband. "He had to fly all the way from Romania, didn't he?"

A dark form shot out of the sky, landing in the backyard. I wondered if any of Rose's neighbours had seen him. The man -- another redhead, no surprise there -- strode over to the shed and thrust his broom into it, then came into the house.

"Uncle Charlie!" shrieked many voices all at once. I assumed that this was the 'favourite uncle' of the family. Rose, Hugo, James, Al, Lily, Victoire, Fred and Molly all ran towards the back door and threw their arms around the man. He seemed to be drowning in happy kids for a while, then he finally got them to get off of him and came to greet his family.

"All right, so everybody's here now?" asked Rose's mother. "Good. Can I get any help in the kitchen?"

All the women proceeded to follow her into the kitchen, and Mr Potter clapped his hands together and called to all the children. "How does a game of Quidditch sound, while all the Mums slave over breakfast?"

Rose's grandfather and her Uncle Percy decided to stay in the house, so the rest of us filed outside, and Rose's dad handed out brooms to everybody. Victoire's father was going to referee. We got a piece of parchment to sort out the teams, as there were fourteen of us, just enough to have enough people to play.

Team 1 Team 2  
Harry (S) James (S)  
Ron (K) Charlie (K)  
George (B) Teddy (B)  
Al (B) Fred (B)  
Rose (C) Victoire (C)  
Elle (C) Hugo (C)  
Lily (C) Molly (C)

After things got confusing with me calling all the fathers 'Mr Weasley' (except for Mr Potter, of course), they told me to just call them by their first names, which would be a lot less confusing. Harry and Charlie were the Captains of the teams. I was a Chaser, which meant I had to get the red ball and try to score. Ron conjured six hoops, three at each end of the yard, and flew up to one set, while Charlie took the other. We all got into position, and then Bill blew the whistle that he had conjured, and the game began.

By the time that the mothers had called us in, I'd decided that I liked to play the position of Seeker, rather than Chaser.

Breakfast was almost as good as breakfast at Hogwarts. We all filled ourselves to bursting, then headed into the sitting room, where the tree had a gigantic pile of presents underneath it. The kids took turns taking a present and giving it to somebody.

Rose oooohhhed and aaaaahhhed over the hair clips I had given her. Each hair clip had a different flower on it, and the flowers opened and closed depending on the light you were in and what time of day it was. She had given me a beautiful silver bracelet with little moving charms on it. I put the bracelet on right there and then, promising myself that I would never take it off.

I had given James a Broomstick Servicing Kit, knowing how much he liked to fly. It included polish for the handle, clippers to remove broken twigs, a compass to put on the handle and many other things. He hugged me when he opened it, lingering just a little bit too long, then gave me my present -- no surprise there, it was more joke things.

Grandma screamed when she opened the present I had given her -- for the box was rattling and hissing. I'd poked holes in the top of the box so that the present wouldn't die on me, but it was a little bit angry that I'd trapped it in a cardboard box, even though I'd put food and water in there, too. When Grandma finally gathered the courage to lift the lid on the box, a grey cat flew out, hissing and spitting and drenched with water. Everybody laughed for several minutes, but the cat calmed down quickly. She curled up on Grandma's lap and went to sleep.

Grandma had bought me more of the books that I'd lost during the break-in, something that Rose and her cousins found very intriguing. They leaned over the books for twenty whole minutes, looking at the titles and reading out loud what each book said on the back, telling me whether or not they thought the books seemed interesting. I finally pried them away from my new books and hid them behind the couch.

I was surprised to receive a present from Rose's grandparents, Molly and Arthur. They had knit me a midnight-blue sweater with a silver 'E' on it. I thanked them, still shocked by the fact that they had gotten me a present, and we continued on with the gift-giving.

Eventually, the pile of presents under the tree was whittled down to nothing, and people started to depart. The Potters were staying for supper as well, but everybody else was gone soon after the presents were done. Rose and I trudged up to Rose's bedroom with our gigantic piles of presents and dumped them on the beds, then ran back downstairs for another game of Quidditch, this time with less people. We didn't have to write down the teams this time.

We didn't have a referee this game, but Grandma sat in a lawn chair by the back door and watched the game, cheering everybody on. Harry and Ron tried to split the teams evenly. We did not use Beaters in this game. Harry and Ginny were the Seekers and Captains, which Ron said was prejudiced ("Just because you guys are good..."). Ron was Keeper for Ginny's team, and Al for his father's team. Rose, Hugo and I were Chasers for Ginny, while James, Lily and Hermione were on Harry's team. Once everything was organized, the game began.

Ginny caught the Snitch about an hour into the game. Harry was a good sport about his wife beating him to the little golden ball ("Good Wronski Feint, Ginny!") and Hermione, Ginny and Grandma ventured inside to make supper. The rest of us stayed outside to play another game, switching the teams up a little -- each team had only two Chasers in this game. I was Chaser for Ron's team with Lily, and Rose was Keeper for her Uncle's team. Rose let in way too many of the shots that Lily and I took, while Harry said that Ron's Keeper skills had grown since sixth year. Harry caught the Snitch in this game, but my team only lost by around twenty points, due to all the goals we had scored.

After supper, James grabbed his Lightningbolt and his father's arm, and Harry Disapparated with his oldest son. Ginny followed soon after with Al and Lily.

Rose and I stayed up late, talking about how much fun we'd had. We were entertained for almost an hour by holding a flashlight over her new hair clips, turning it on and off over and over and over, watching the flowers open and close and open and close again and again.

***

_**Author's Note: **__Hope you enjoyed the latest installation to Mudblood! Wow, that sounded so official. Anyways, sorry that this is kind of a pointless chapter, but something dramatic is going to happen soon... No telling what, though... :D And Elle needs to have some fun now. Thanks to my reviewers, as always: GoodxStoryxReader, Chelsea2013, and HPobsessssssed7.  
_


	10. Study

Chapter Ten

Grandma and I invited Rose's entire family to our house for New Year's Eve, a holiday which most wizarding families did not celebrate. Charlie wasn't able to make it, as he was already back in Romania, working with the dragons. Audrey came, but Percy had a report he had to get ready for the Minister for Magic, Kingsley Shacklebolt, so he didn't come. Other than that, everybody else from Christmas came. Rose, Hugo and their parents marched up the street like Muggles and knocked on our door -- Hermione said that they didn't want to 'intrude on our privacy.' They had arrived early, so they helped Grandma and I decorate the house without using magic, because the Ministry of Magic would think that I had used magic, even though I was underage. By the time the Potters knocked on our door, following Rose's mother's example, we had most of the colorful streamers up, and Rose, Hugo and I were purple in the face from the effort of blowing up so many balloons.

Everybody else arrived like Muggles, too, or else by the Floo Network -- Apparition or Portkeys would get me in trouble.

Finally, everybody was there, and we started the party. I led the countdown to the New Year, and then everybody went home. It wasn't nearly as eventful as Christmas (we couldn't play Quidditch in the backyard due to nosy neighbours), but everybody had a lot of fun.

On January 3, Grandma drove me to King's Cross so that I could return to Hogwarts. I thanked Carla and Annie for the presents they had sent me, and they thanked me likewise. Then we got on the train and played 'Exploding Snap' again, talking and laughing the entire time.

I had missed the delicious food from Hogwarts. After we had finished supper, Rose asked if we wanted to see something. Carla and Annie claimed that they were tired, and headed back to the common room, but I went with Rose. She led me down a small set of stone stairs across the Entrance Hall and into a long, straight corridor. Torches hung in brackets on the wall, and Hufflepuffs kept squeezing past us and venturing down the long hallway to give a password to a portrait of a fat man at the end of the corridor. Rose, however, stopped long before the entrance to the Hufflepuffs' common room, in front of an unmoving painting. She looked both ways down the corridor, then tickled the painted pear, which giggled and allowed the portrait to swing forwards. Then she stepped forwards into the gloom beyond the painting. I stared after her until the dark swallowed her up.

Rose's voice hissed out of the dark. "Elle! Come on!"

Uncertainly, I stepped through the hole left by the painting, blinking rapidly so that my eyes could adjust to the dark. Just as I grew used to the new lighting and was able to see Rose ten feet ahead of me, waiting, the portrait of the fruit bowl swung shut and everything went black.

"Come on!" whispered Rose.

"I can't see anything!" I hissed.

"We aren't at home anymore, silly!" she said quietly. "Light your wand! _Lumos!_" she whispered as an afterthought, and a point of white light appeared five feet in front of me.

I could have kicked myself. Why didn't I think of that? "_Lumos!_" I muttered, and the tip of my wand lit like a candle, lighting two feet around me in all directions. I went quickly to Rose and she led me the rest of the way. I discovered that we were in a wide corridor. There were torches on these walls, too, but they were not lit.

"_Nox!_" Rose's light went out.

"What did you do that for?" I whispered furiously, keeping mine lit.

"Trust me," said Rose's voice out of the dark. "Just put your light off."

"Are you _crazy?_" I said.

"Just do it," said Rose impatiently.

"Fine. _Nox!_" And the darkness surrounded us again.

"We're almost there," promised Rose. "Just a little bit further..."

And a moment later, we emerged into a large, brightly lit room with a high ceiling and four long tables, with another one at the top of the room. The layout was exactly like the Great Hall.

"What is this place?" I asked. My voice echoed.

"It's the kitchens, silly," explained Rose.

"Can Hally get Miss and Miss anything?" squeaked a voice from my waist, and I looked down, startled, to see a little thing with big ears and round eyes, staring up at me, wearing a tea towel tied around its body like a dress.

"No, thank you, Hally," said Rose politely, and the thing ran off.

"What was that?"

"A house-elf," said Rose promptly. "Her name is Hally, she's assigned to our dormitory. The house-elves clean Hogwarts and cook our food. They put it on these tables, and when McGonagall says so, the food gets sent up to the Great Hall -- which is directly above the kitchens. Each house-elf is assigned to a place for them to clean -- one to every dormitory, like Hally is for ours, and Cannon is for Ayla's. Then two or three are assigned to each common room, and a few to each classroom. There's one to every teacher's office, and then some for the bathrooms. The rest just roam around, cleaning anything that Filch misses."

"Wow," I said, trying to think of how many house-elves would be needed to clean all of Hogwarts. I wondered why we hardly ever saw them. Even now, I couldn't see many. "Where are they now, do you think?" I asked.

"Well, their day's work is over if they are assigned to a dormitory, because they do those while everybody's in class, so those one's are probably in bed, resting," she said, pointing to a number of tiny little doors along two walls. There was more than one level of house-elf rooms, like an apartment. There were little bits of walkway, with stairs leading up to them, at each level, so that the house-elves could reach their houses easily. "Each room is really small, about as big around as our beds. Each house-elf has some blankets and stuff to sleep on, and sometimes a few possessions, depending. No clothes, though -- if their master gives a house-elf clothes, they've been freed. And these house-elves have lots of masters -- teachers, students... The ones that are cleaning other places are probably there already -- bathrooms, classrooms. Common rooms get done while we're asleep."

I stood there, staring in awe, for several minutes. Finally, Rose tugged on my sleeve.

"Elle..."

"Mmmm?" I looked at her, still amazed by the kitchens. House-elves bustled around, happily cleaning.

"It's almost curfew," she informed me. "We have to get back to the common room."

We ran down corridors and up winding staircases until we reached the entrance to Ravenclaw Tower.

"_Caput Draconis,_" panted Rose, and the door swung open. We stumbled into the common room just in time.

"Where have you guys _been?_" hissed Carla when we sat down, without even looking up from her parchment.

"Kitchens," replied Rose.

"Well, you'd better get started on your homework!" she told us. "Annie's already finished, she went up to bed a while ago." She finished her Potions essay a moment later. Rolling up the parchment, she screwed the cap onto her ink bottle and stood up. "Hurry up, guys! Classes start again tomorrow. You'll want to get some sleep." And with that, she disappeared towards the girls' dormitories.

***

The next morning, there was a notice in the common room.

"The first Quidditch match on Saturday!" whispered Rose excitedly on the way down to breakfast. "Gryffindor against Hufflepuff. James is Seeker for Gryffindor, you know."

The week passed quickly. On Saturday morning, we followed the rest of the crowd down to the Quidditch pitch. We cheered loudly when Gryffindor scored first.

"Steven Landon of Gryffindor takes the Quaffle!" cried a voice.

"That's Sam Jordan," Rose told me. "He's my cousin Fred's best mate. He almost always announces the Quidditch games."

"But Kylie Steele of Hufflepuff has taken it from him!" yelled Sam. "She flies towards Gryffindor's hoops... Can Korde save it?" There was a pause. "And she's saved it!" Sam shouted as a great cheer arose from the spectators wearing red and gold. "But what's going on? Looks like Potter's seen the Snitch!"

I looked around, trying to spot James. He was in a steep dive towards the ground, his body pressed flat to his broom, a red-and-gold streak in the air. As he got closer to the ground, he reached out his right hand towards a golden blur of movement; the Snitch hovering five centimeters off the grass. Turning the broom up at the last moment, he grabbed the Snitch and flew up again, straight past Hufflepuff's disappointed Seeker. There was a roar of approval from the Gryffindors, and the game was over as quickly as it had begun.

***

Over the next month or so, I grew closer to Rose, while the two of us sort of drifted away from Annie and Carla. During flying lessons, I talked to Carla, because Rose wasn't there, but other than that, I barely spoke to Annie and Carla. The material we learned in all of our classes became harder. The teachers were constantly on our case about 'exams are coming' and 'study hard for your exams' and blah, blah, blah. Rose and I became inseparable. Once or twice a week, we went down to the kitchens to say hello to the house-elves. Sometimes we simply wandered the halls, trying to see if we could find anywhere we hadn't been yet (we found four empty classrooms and two boys' washrooms over the course of two weeks). On days that we didn't go exploring, we went to the library and did homework. Otherwise, we would do our homework in the common room, after curfew. Carla and Annie sat across the table from us at mealtimes, but they didn't talk to us much. There was the occasional "Hi, how are you?" and "So did you finish the Charms essay?" but other than that, nothing. Zip. Zero. Zilch.

Exams approached too quickly. It was March, then I blinked, and suddenly it was June, and my first exam was in two days.

It was Saturday -- sunny, as usual for summer -- but Rose and I weren't having fun like the rest of the students. We sat under a tree by the lake, leaning over our books and quizzing each other on what we had learned throughout the year.

I looked up when I heard footsteps. A large group of people was headed towards us.

"Mind if we study with you?" asked Al, and Rose just shrugged.

"Sure, have a seat," I said, then turned back to _Magical Drafts and Potions._

I guess I didn't realize just how many people were there, because a moment later, what sounded like a million different voices started up, quizzing each other on the properties of plants, the ingredients of potions, the wand movements for this spell and for that spell. I looked up from my book very slowly and looked around at the large group of people. Al, Scorpius, Lizzie, Marie, Emily, Carla, Annie. Even some of the Gryffindor first-year girls that disliked us for 'intruding into their dormitory' after the break-in last fall, Ivonette Randall and Jana Neptune, were there, as well as a bunch of boys from our year -- all five of the Ravenclaw first-year boys, and a couple of Gryffindor first-year boys as well, other than Al and Scorpius, of course.

"Study group?" asked a voice. I looked up, squinting into the bright sunlight, to see James grinning at me.

"Yeah, I guess so," I replied. "Want to join?"

"Might as well. Nothing better to do, anyways," he said, and sat down beside me. "Want any help?"

"Don't you need to study?"

"I'll help you if you help me," he promised, pulling his books out of his bag and handing one to me, taking _Magical Drafts and Potions_ out of my hand at the same time. "You ask me a question out of my book, then I'll ask you one from yours."

I flipped through the pages of _The Standard Book of Spells, Grade 2_. "Er... What is the incantation and wand movement to make inanimate objects fly?"

"_Wingardium Leviosa_, and it's a swish," he said. "Why are you in the Grade 1 Review section?"

***

_**Author's Note: **__All right, so on this rare occasion when I have absolutely nothing to say except that my brother is a git (which is always, ALWAYS true), then I will simply say: Thank you to those who reviewed last chapter -- __**HPobsessssssed7**__ and __**Chelsea2013**__. I love you guys! And thank you to __**girllyingbythesea901**__ for adding Mudblood to your favourite stories! Okay, and with that done, I am going to go and begin Chapter 11, and my brother is a git. =D_


	11. Crash

Chapter Eleven

The next day was Sunday. Our Charms written exam was the next day, along with the practical part of the exam. Rose and I had promised each other that we would study all day.

At breakfast, Storm flew into the Great Hall bringing a letter from Grandma.

***

_Dear Elle,_

_I'm so sorry that I have to tell you this. _

_As you know, your parents were returning home so that they could be here when you returned from Hogwarts for the summer. Unfortunately, they will not be able to make it. The flight that they were on was from California, all the way to London. The airplane has gone down in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and no survivors have been found yet._

***

I stopped reading then. Crumpling up the letter without reading the rest of it, I clutched the paper in my tightly balled fist and stood up.

"Elle?" Rose looked at me, concerned. I didn't answer her, just walked away with as much dignity as I could muster. I tried to hold my head high, act as if nothing was wrong, but I couldn't. As soon as I was out of the Great Hall, the tears spilled out. I ran blindly up the spiral staircase.

"_Peruvian Vipertooth,_" I whispered as I approached the door, and it swung open to admit me into the empty common room. I went straight to the girls' dormitory door. "_Fanged Geranium._" I went down the stairs. "_Gulping Plimpies._"

I drew the hangings around my bed and took Soleil out of her cage, allowing her to run around on the bed. I watched her absently.

I heard footsteps outside. "_Gulping Plimpies._" I heard the door open and close, more footsteps, and a sigh.

"Elle," said Rose, "are you okay?"

I didn't answer.

"Elle, answer me. What's wrong?"

I opened the curtains enough for my hand to poke out, and held out the letter. A moment later, the crumpled paper was tugged from my hand. I heard Rose flatten it out, then there was silence as she read it. I waited for her to leave.

The curtains flew open and Rose sat down on the bed. I turned away from her.

"Elle?"

"Go away."

"Elle, I'm really sorry."

"I said go away."

"Sorry," she whispered again, and left.

***

I woke up in the morning to a pillow hitting me repeatedly in the face.

"Elle," called a voice. "Elle! Elle, wake up! The exam starts in half an hour!"

I shot up in bed, then remembered the events of the day before and pulled the blankets back over me.

"Who cares?" I asked in a muffled voice. "I don't mind failing."

"Elle," said Rose impatiently, pulling the blankets back off of me. "Come on! You have to eat."

"No, I don't," I mumbled, reaching for the blankets.

A hand closed around my wrist and dragged me to a standing position. Rose's startling blue eyes stared into my lighter blue ones. I could see each and every one of her freckles.

"You have to eat," Rose announced. "Come on." She dragged me from the room, ignoring my protests. In the nearly-empty Great Hall, she served me some porridge, fruit and pumpkin juice, then looked at me expectantly. I didn't move. She picked up a spoon and plunged it into the porridge. "Open up," she ordered.

"I'm not being fed like a baby!" I said indignantly, snatching the spoon out of her hand.

"Eat it all," she said sternly, turning back to the dishes of cooling food and serving herself.

I managed to get through the Charms exam. Rose dragged me to the dormitory after the practical portion of the exam and grabbed our books, then led me outside to sit by the lake, where she began to quiz me on Defence Against the Dark Arts. I refused to answer her.

"Elle," she said frustratedly, after trying to get me to answer the same question six times. "You can't live like this. It's only been a day since you got the letter, and look at you! You're already an empty shell! And besides, they might not even be... well, you know. Your grandma said that no survivors had been found _yet_. Your parents might get found! They might be okay!"

I turned my face away from her.

"Listen to me, Elle," commanded Rose. "If I had gotten a letter like yours, I'd be devastated too. And you'd be in my position, trying to get me to be normal again. Imagine that for a second. Do you think it's fun, trying to breathe some life into you? Do you think it's easy?"

I didn't look at her. I shut the book that she had opened and placed in front of me, then turned my entire body so that my back was to her and the lake.

"What's wrong with her?" came a voice that I recognized to belong to James.

"She got a letter from her grandma," Rose said quietly. I heard her whispering the situation to her cousin, then it was completely and totally silent. Finally.

Then a hand was placed on my shoulder and a voice whispered in my ear. "I'm really sorry," said James. "You okay?"

"Leave me alone."

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw James' face fall. I tried not to smile the bitter smile that was all I could manage now. Maybe now James would go away.

But he didn't. He sighed, sat down beside me, and slipped his arm around my shoulders, pulling me into him. He patted me on the back, and I lost control of the tears I had been holding back.

***

_**Author's Note: **__Awwwww!!!! Kinda short, but two chapters in one day, and I think the ending of the chapter is really sweet. I was trying to show James' soft side... I have nothing to say this time, not even any 'thanks to my reviewers' because I guess I finished this chapter really really fast! Well, I suppose since I already had the idea formed in my head... Poor Elle! Tell me what you think, and my brother is still a git. He tied all my stuffies from when I was little -- all the special ones, like the ones I've had since I was 2 and under -- to the light fixture and my bed and my desk in a gigantic spider web of string. =(_


	12. Tryouts

Chapter Twelve

The rest of exam week passed quickly in a blur of crying myself to sleep, Rose force-feeding me meals and trying desperately to get me to be 'alive' again, and James attempting to comfort me every time that he saw me. Soon enough, I was staring gloomily out the window of the Hogwarts Express. Rose, Al, Scorpius and James were playing Exploding Snap, trying to have as much fun as possible in a vain attempt to get me to join in, but I did my best to ignore their laughter.

Grandma was waiting for me at the train station next to the Potters and all of the Weasleys with children attending Hogwarts. She wrapped her arms around me comfortingly, and I felt more at home than ever.

On the way to her house, she told me that she was officially my guardian now. There had been an argument over the past week, about who I was going to stay with -- her, or Granddad and Nana. I was glad that Grandma had won, but I didn't show it.

My parents' funeral was going to be next Saturday. Grandma said that I could invite my friends, if I wanted to. Hint, hint. I paid no attention to this.

The funeral approached quickly. Grandma and I drove to the place where the headstones were being placed, with no bodies underneath -- they still hadn't been found. When Grandma parked the car, my eyes focussed on a group of nine people standing under a big tree, looking as much like Muggles as the other people standing about. But the red hair was a dead giveaway; two girls, a woman, and a man, all with precisely the same shade of bright red. And freckles.

As I stepped out of the car, wearing a black sweater over my black dress -- it was unusually cold for July -- one of the redheaded girls stepped forwards. Two black-haired boys followed.

I glared towards Grandma as the three of them approached me. "_She_ invited you, didn't she?"

"Yeah," said Rose quietly. "She said that you were lonely."

"Well, I'm not," I snapped. "I have Storm, and Soleil."

"Are you all right, Elle?" asked James, concerned.

"I'm _fine,_" I said impatiently.

James looked hurt. I tried to ignore it.

"I don't need you. Any of you," I said firmly, and walked away, clutching my sweater around me.

***

I was in the kitchen the week after the funeral when Rose's head popped into the fireplace.

"Hi," she said. "How are you feeling?"

"Why can't you take a hint?" I asked angrily. "_Leave me alone!_" I stalked out of the room. A moment later, I heard the _pop_ that carried Rose back to her own home.

Several days later, Grandma asked me to answer the door. When I swung it open, I saw two boys with black hair and dark eyes.

I slammed the door in their faces.

Seconds later, I heard knocking on the door -- if it could be called knocking. "Open up!" yelled James, banging on the door with a sound that threatened to break it in. I sighed and opened my book. Eventually, James and Al gave up and walked back down the street.

Throughout the summer, James, Al and Rose tried to get me to talk to them using various techniques -- the Floo network, knocking on my door, phoning. A couple of times, they even got one of their parents to take them with Side-Along Apparition, and they randomly appeared outside my house in the dead of night to ring the doorbell repeatedly, waking up the entire neighborhood with their yelling.

At the beginning of August, I got my book-list from Hogwarts, and Grandma took me to Diagon Alley to replenish my school supplies. She even bought me a broom -- _Cleansweep 19_ -- in an attempt to cheer me up. I didn't let on, but it worked. A little. Not really.

Soon enough, I was on the train back to Hogwarts for my second year, sitting alone in a compartment. Five minutes into the ride, the door slid open and Rose, James, Al and Scorpius stepped in, laughing at some witty joke that Scorpius had told.

"Oh," said Rose when she saw me, startled. I looked up at her without any trace of emotion. She sat down.

"Fred's ecstatic," said James, trying to get me to join whatever conversation they'd been having before they entered the compartment. "Ayla's been made Head Girl _and_ Ravenclaw Quidditch captain."

"Really?" Rose said absently, never taking her eyes off of me. She stared at me reproachfully for most of the train ride.

Eventually, Al and Scorpius disappeared down the train in search of the food cart. James' friend Royce Higgs appeared in the doorway ten minutes later and dragged him away down the train to see a bunch of fourth-year girls.

The compartment fell silent without James there to make small talk and act as if nothing had happened.

"How come you ignored me all summer?" Rose asked quietly after a few minutes of unbearable silence. At least, it was unbearable to her. "See? You're even doing it now!"

"No, I'm not," I said, without looking at her.

Rose sighed. "Finally, you're talking to me again." Then the compartment was silent again.

"Elle?"

"Yeah?" I said nonchalantly.

"I'm really sorry about what happened, you know, with your --"

"I know," I mumbled.

And then suddenly we were hugging each other and crying.

"I'm sorry for being a git," I said into Rose's shoulder.

The compartment door slid open. "Well, I see you two have made up," said Al happily. "Do I get a hug, too? I'll give you a Chocolate Frog."

***

I was still half-empty, but I was more full of life than I had been all summer. Rose, James and Al welcomed the old me -- what was left of it, anyway -- back into their hearts.

When Rose and I entered the common room after supper two weeks into the school year, Ayla Wood was standing by the notice board, using Spellotape to attach a large notice that announced Ravenclaw Quidditch team tryouts would be held on Saturday after lunch.

"Are you going to try out?" asked Rose excitedly as we went down to the dormitory. "_Acromantula venom._"

"I don't know," I said uncertainly.

"You should!" said Rose. "I mean, you have a broom, right? And you're an excellent flyer. You should try out. I mean, the worst that could happen is --"

"I get humiliated in front of half the House?"

"I was _going_ to say that the worst that could happen is you won't get on the team, but that works too," Rose told me. "But what's the harm? I mean, you have real talent. Half of my family are good flyers, so I should know talent when I see it. Unfortunately, I seem to have inherited Mum's flying senses, but really, Elle, you should try out for the team!"

I thought for a minute. "Okay. I'll give it a try."

***

But on Saturday after lunch, I had second thoughts.

"What if I suck?"

"You won't," promised Rose.

"But I haven't flown since June," I reminded her.

"You'll be fine."

"Are you sure?"

"Elle." She grabbed my shoulders and looked into my eyes. "I've got two words for you. _Pure talent._ You are amazing on a broom. Now get out there and do your best!"

Ayla wrote down everybody's names and the positions we were trying out for (Rose had signed me up to try out for Seeker). Then she announced that she wanted everybody to fly around the pitch twice to warm up, in groups of ten. I was thrown into a group of fifth-years who took one look at me, a little second-year with blonde hair and a secondhand broomstick, and burst out laughing.

I managed to get around the pitch all right. Next, Ayla sent everybody but the Beaters to the stands. I didn't pay any attention to the Beater tryouts, or the Chaser tryouts, or the Keeper tryouts. Rose was in my face giving me a pep talk. By the time Ayla called for the Seekers, I was feeling a little more confident, but I was still a nervous wreck.

There were four people trying out for Seeker -- Danielle Usher, a petite fifth-year with dark hair and a shiny new broomstick, Thomas Ramsey, a chubby sixth-year who Rose whispered would have no chance whatsoever, a fourth-year named Noah Valentine, and me.

Ayla held up a bag of golf balls. "I'm going to throw these into the air, and you're going to catch them," she told us. The chosen team so far -- Beaters, Richard O'Conner and Gary Yarrow. Chasers, Carla, Edward Way and Ayla herself. Keeper, Jayden Scamander -- sat in the stands with the small crowd of spectators that was left.

It was Danielle's turn first. She caught eight out of ten golf balls. Thomas got four. Noah got seven. Then it was my turn. Could I beat Danielle? I caught one, two, three. I missed the fourth. Caught the next three, missed another. If I could catch the last golf ball, I would be tied with Danielle. I watched the ball carefully as it flew up into the air. I waited until it began to fall again and shot towards where it was headed. And I caught it. Just as it was about to hit the grass, I caught it.

"Danielle, Elle, you're tied," announced Ayla. "Sorry, Thomas, Noah, better luck next time. Good try, guys." She turned back to the two of us. "Now for the next test. Don't tie again or I'll be forced to come up with another competition." She held up a golden ball with frantically fluttering wings. "I'm going to release the Snitch. You'll give it a fifteen-second getaway. Whoever catches it first is the new Seeker! Got it?"

Danielle and I nodded, and Ayla opened her hand to allow the Snitch its freedom. I followed it with alert eyes as it flew up into the sky. Danielle shielded her eyes from the sun and squinted, trying to follow the golden ball, too.

Ayla blew her whistle and the two of us took off like a shot. In the process of taking off, I lost sight of the Snitch, but Danielle did, too. I swept around the pitch, Danielle close on my tail, searching out any tiny glimmer of gold. Danielle swerved away, flying towards a patch of dancing sunlight, but it had been a trick of the eyes; the Snitch was not there. Suddenly, Danielle angled her broom and shot upwards. I followed her gaze to a shiny gold object fluttering about fifty feet up. Danielle was closer.

I swung my Cleansweep 19 around and shot after her. _I'm too late,_ I thought frantically. _She's going to get there first. I'm too late._ But just as Danielle stretched out her hand to grab the Snitch, it moved like lightning, shooting halfway across the pitch, straight past my ear. I spun around and shot after it, glancing behind me as I went. Danielle was turning her own broomstick around, the shock evident on her face. I looked back the way I was going. The Snitch fluttered its wings by the stands, above some sixth-year's head. She rolled her eyes up, trying to see the Snitch without moving, trying not to scare it away. I almost ran my broom straight into the stands, but pointed the handle towards the air a foot over the girl's head instead. As I passed her, I reached to the side and groped for the Snitch. I went by too fast to tell if I'd gotten it. As I braked, I looked down at my left hand to see the tiny golden wings poking out between my fingers, flapping in a feeble attempt to get away.

I'd caught it!

Ayla blew her whistle again, and Danielle and I landed.

"Congratulations, Elle, you've made the team!" said Ayla with a smile. "Sorry, Danielle. If I need you to fill in for her anytime, I'll let you know, all right?"

Danielle nodded with a sour expression on her face, as though she'd just eaten a lemon, and stalked away.

Ayla led me over to where the rest of the team was sitting. "All right, everybody, here's our new Seeker, Elle Taylor. You guys can go do whatever homework you have now. Come back here after supper for our first practice, all right?"

Everybody nodded and stood up. I made my way over to Rose, who threw her arms around me. "You did it!" she cheered.

We went back to the common room and got our books, taking them outside to the tree by the lake, trying to enjoy what sunshine was left. It was autumn now, and we were trying to make the most of any sun that we got.

Al and Scorpius joined us a few minutes later. "So, how'd you do?" asked Al. Rose had told him that I was trying out.

I grinned at him. "I made the team!"

"Really?" Al smiled. "That's great!"

"She beat Danielle Usher," boasted Rose.

Al's eyes almost popped out of his head. "But she was on the team last year! What did her face look like when she heard she didn't make the team? Was it sad? Angry? Disbelieving? Tell me," he begged, sitting down next to us.

"Er... She kind of looked like she'd eaten a lemon whole," I said, and they all laughed.

"What's going on?" It was James.

Rose looked up at him. "Elle's the new Ravenclaw Seeker," she announced proudly.

"Ah, my competition!" James, too, sat down. He stared at me for a while, taking in his 'competition.'

"It's just a game, James," sighed Rose.

James glared at her. "Just a _game?_" he said, incredulous. "_Just_ a game? Are you kidding, Rose? Quidditch is not _just_ a game. Quidditch is a competitive sport. It means a lot."

Rose narrowed her eyes back at him. "It's a game," she said teasingly.

"Sport."

"Game."

"Sport."

"Ga--"

"It's a game _and_ a sport," I interrupted them.

They both looked at me.

"Sport."

"Game."

"Shut up!" I said loudly. "I'm trying to write my Charms essay."

***

_**Author's Note: **__Hooray! Another chapter! I'm on a roll! Are you glad that everybody made up and they're friends again?? I missed Rose while she was gone. :( Thanks to my reviewers for the last two chapters, I got Chapter 11 up before anybody could review on Chapter 10, so these are reviewers for both chapters: __**HPobsessssssed7**__ and __**Chelsea2013**__. You guys are awesome and I love reading your thoughts on the story (which seems to just be writing itself now)._


	13. Feast

Chapter Thirteen

"All right," said Ayla when we were all down at the Quidditch pitch after supper. "Now, grab your broomsticks and kick off. Form a circle twenty or thirty feet up," she added. She flew up there with us and joined the circle. "Now, since this team is entirely different from last year, aside from myself, Edward and Gary, we're going to get to know each other." She held up the Quaffle. "When this gets passed to you, tell us something about yourself and pass it on. Maybe we can start with family, or something like that. You can pass to anybody, anywhere. I'll start." She paused to make sure that everybody understood, then began. "My dad is Oliver Wood, from Puddlemere United, and my mum is Katie Wood, née Bell. I have two younger siblings -- Alyx, third year, and Jonathan, who is starting at Hogwarts next year." She passed the Quaffle to the Keeper, sixth-year Jayden Scamander, who leaned over easily and caught it one-handed.

"My parents are Rolf and Luna Scamander, and I have a younger sister named Ava, who is going to be in her first-year next September." Jayden tossed the Quaffle at Richard O'Conner, one of the Beaters.

"I'm an only child, and my parents' names are Jacob and Tracy," said the dark-haired fourth-year, and tossed the Quaffle at me.

I almost missed it, but managed to hold onto it. "I'm an only child, too, and my parents were Muggles. They died in a plane crash last June, and I live with my Grandma now," I said quietly, and quickly tossed the Quaffle at somebody without looking.

"My dad's name is Trent Wilde, and my stepmum's name is Rachel," said a voice cheerfully. I looked over to see Carla holding the Quaffle. "I never knew my mum -- she died when I was born. I was the fifth and last child of my dad's -- there's Hannah, Wesley, Nolan, Melissa, and me. Dad married Rachel three summers ago, and she has seven kids from her first two marriages -- Jason, Analiese and Brianna from her first, and Cynthia, Elizabeth, Will and Peter from her second. I'm the only one at Hogwarts now, though." She threw the Quaffle at Gary Yarrow, the other Beater, and settled back to listen to him, seemingly oblivious to the team's shock at her many older siblings.

"I don't have as many siblings as her," said Gary pointlessly. "I've got an older sister, Kayla -- she's nineteen. And then my younger sister, Angela, she's seven." He passed the Quaffle to Edward Way, the third Chaser.

"My mum got cancer when I was three," said Edward, "and she died when I was five. My dad's name is Pierre. I have two older brothers, Matthew and Derek. They're twins, and they're in seventh year, Hufflepuff." He looked at Ayla questioningly; everybody had already had a turn. "What now?"

"I'll think of a new question for tomorrow. We'll do this as part of our warm-up every practice," Ayla decided. "Now, everybody fly three laps of the pitch and land by the ball box." She flew off, beginning her three laps.

When we had all landed beside her, she opened the box. She pulled out two bats for the Beaters, and told everybody what we were going to do. "Jayden, get up to the goalposts. Me, Edward and Carla are going to practice shooting on you. Richard, Gary, you're going to keep the Bludgers away from us. Don't let anybody get hurt -- we haven't even had our first game yet." She handed them the Beaters' bats. "Elle, once you catch the Snitch, let it go, give it a twenty second getaway, and go after it again. When I blow my whistle, everybody come back here." She gave me the Snitch and kicked off with the Quaffle. Carla and Edward followed her quickly. Richard and Gary each released a Bludger and kicked off after the black balls, holding their bats in one hand. I watched everybody for a minute, until Ayla shouted down at me to get going. Then I let go of the Snitch and watched it fly off into the darkening sky.

***

The next day was Sunday. I had the entire day to myself and my aching body. I locked myself in the bathroom in the dormitory and took a long bath after breakfast. After that, Rose and I went down to Hagrid's cabin with Al and Scorpius for a long chat and tea. Hagrid offered us rock cakes, but with the first visit of the previous year in mind, we all declined.

The weeks flew by. Every Saturday after dinner, Ayla dragged the team down to the Quidditch pitch for practice. The first Hogsmeade trip was on Halloween -- my birthday. James, who was now in his third year, and was able to go to Hogsmeade, as his parents had signed the permission slip that summer, swore to bring me back a present. I was outside with Rose, Al and Scorpius all morning. At lunch, the four of us went into the Great Hall only for five minutes, wrapping food in napkins and carrying it out the door in our pockets. We ate down at the edge of the lake, under our usual tree.

James returned just before the Halloween feast (which Rose told me wasn't the Halloween feast, it was my birthday feast). He went straight to the four of us, still sitting under the tree, talking and laughing, surrounded by napkins and crumbs.

"Do you want your present?" he asked excitedly, holding up a gigantic package.

I had refused to open my presents that morning, leaving them in a heap at the foot of my bed. Now I told James, "If I get to open my other presents, too. I waited until all of them were ready."

James grinned and pointed his wand in the direction of Ravenclaw Tower. "_Accio Elle's presents!_" he said. A moment later, a bunch of packages flew out a window and down to the tree, where they arranged themselves in a pile next to me. "Now will you open them?" asked James hopefully.

I nodded and reached for the gift on the top of the pile, which was from Al. He had given me a book called _The Tales of Beedle the Bard._

"I knew you wouldn't know about it," he said happily when I asked him who Beedle the Bard was. "It's like your fairytale stories, I suppose. But for wizards. Babbity Rabbity, and there's the Tale of the Three Brothers..."

Rose had given me a Broomstick Servicing Kit, just like the one I had given James last Christmas.

"I mean, you have your own broomstick now, so why not?" she said, shrugging. "Besides, they're really helpful."

Grandma had sent the usual treat -- this time, a very squashed pumpkin pie and a paper plate heaped with homemade tarts and covered with plastic wrap. My friends were entranced by the plastic wrap. Grandma had also sent another book, called _The Will of the Empress,_ and a pretty blue dress that matched the colour of my eyes. She had attached a package that Granddad and Nana had asked her to send to me, which contained a CD of classical music and twenty-five dollars. I was glad that I wouldn't be able to listen to the CD, given the lack of electricity at Hogwarts.

I was surprised to find a couple of gifts at the bottom of the pile from various people. James and Al's parents had sent me a package of Chocolate Frogs and a silver bracelet with charms dangling from it. Rose's parents had wrapped up some new quills and three bottles of ink -- color-changing ink, self-correcting ink, and invisible ink. Hagrid had sloppily wrapped a package of animated creatures. There was a dragon, a unicorn, a pegasus, and something that resembled half of an eagle and half of a horse, which James told me was called a Hippogriff. The other package was from Scorpius, and it contained a wizard chess set and a pack of Exploding Snap cards.

"Scorpius, you shouldn't have!" I said, hugging him.

"Scorp," he said.

"What?"

"I hate the name Scorpius. Just Scorp is fine."

"Oh," I said, confused. "Okay."

"Will you open mine now?" said James, handing me the big package.

The package was full of random items. There were six bottles of what James called 'Butterbeer,' two pumpkin pasties, a handful of Chocolate Frogs, and a variety of joke items from Zonko's, a store in Hogsmeade. I noticed a tradition of candy and joke items coming from James.

Then Rose helped me carry everything back to our dormitory, and we went back down after putting everything away and had dinner. I had Quidditch practice after that.

After Quidditch practice, I cut two pieces of Grandma's pumpkin pie -- one for me and one for Rose -- to have before bed, and we went to sleep.

***

_**Author's Note: **__I wish I got awesome birthday presents like Elle's when I had my birthday. But I guess that's out of the question, aside from the book that Elle's grandma sent her, which I did get for my birthday. It's really good. If you haven't read it, you should. It's __**The Will of the Empress**__ by Tamora Pierce. Anyways, I just wanted to say that I love Elle's grandma, and I wish she was my grandma, because neither of my grandmothers make tarts and pie and cookies and brownies and send them to me in the mail. And I also wanted to say that my computer is really annoying. It keeps refusing to let me reply to any reviews. :( *Sniff sniff*  
_


	14. Luck

Chapter Fourteen

The first Quidditch match of the year was Ravenclaw versus Gryffindor.

I was nervous. That was the only way to describe it. How would I be able to get the Snitch before James? The answer was simple -- I wouldnÕt. He was older, he was more experienced. I was never going to be able to do it. Maybe Ayla would let me quit the team.

Forget that. Ayla would never let me quit.

"I'm doomed," I said at breakfast on the first Saturday in November.

"You'll be fine," said Rose kindly, patting me on the shoulder.

"No, I won't!" I moaned. "I'm up against _James._ I can't do this! I should never have tried out for the team. I'm going to go and convince Ayla to let me quit."

Carla sat down across the table from me. "Ready for the big game?" she asked cheerfully, spooning a gigantic pile of eggs onto her plate and spearing a couple of sausages on a fork.

I stared at her. "How can you_ eat?_" I groaned. "Aren't you _nervous?_"

"Yeah, I suppose so," she said. "You?"

"I'm _doomed,_" I repeated, staring at my empty plate.

"I'll take that as a yes," grinned Carla. "Here, Elle, have some sausage."

"I can't eat!" I said. "I'm going to get kicked off the team. I never should have done this."

Ayla appeared behind Carla. "Carla, Elle, be down at the pitch in five minutes," she ordered, and disappeared again.

So a few minutes later, Carla was dragging me down to the Quidditch pitch with her, trying to cheer me up. After everybody was changed, Ayla gave us a pep talk, and then she led us out onto the Quidditch pitch.

The crowd was deafening. I tried to ignore both the crowd and the butterflies in my stomach and walked after the rest of the team towards Professor Chang and the middle of the field. The Gryffindor team met us in the middle of the field, and Ayla and the Gryffindor captain, Jaryd Board, shook hands. Professor Chang told everybody to mount their brooms and get into position. Then she released the Snitch. Ten seconds later, the Bludgers. Then she threw the Quaffle into the air, blew her whistle, and the game began. I scanned the pitch for the tiny golden ball that I had to catch. Across the field, I saw James doing the same.

"Get moving!" cried Ayla, shooting past me with the Quaffle.

I began circling the pitch, still looking for the Snitch. My eyes flickered between James, the sky, and the green grass twenty feet below me. I saw James staring at a point two feet to my right, and my head snapped around to see if he was looking at the Snitch. There was nothing there. When I looked back towards James, he was laughing uncontrollably.

Gryffindor scored first. Sam Jordan was commentating again. I looked helplessly for the Snitch, circling around the field, weaving around team members, as Gryffindor scored again and again. Edward scored and brought the score up to 60-10 for Gryffindor. Then Gryffindor scored a few more times, and we were losing by over a hundred points. Ayla flew past me again. "Get the Snitch!" she shouted at me.

_I can't find it,_ I thought. I was never going to get the Snitch, and we would lose. We would lose and it would be my fault. All my fault. I should never have joined the team. Last year, when Danielle Usher was Seeker, Ravenclaw won the Quidditch Cup. Why did I have to accelerate so hard at the tryouts? Why did I have to beat her? Why did the Snitch have to move just as she was about to get it?

Those fifth-years that had laughed at me were right. I was just some stupid second-year, thinking I could make the team. It was just luck that I got on the team, right? Just pure luck.

_I've got two words for you. Pure talent,_ Rose's voice echoed in my mind. I shook my head to clear it. Rose must have been mistaken. I had no talent.

"Elle!" shrieked Ayla, flying past me a third time.

I looked around and saw James leaning forward, flat against his broom, in a steep dive towards a glittering gold ball two feet off the grass. I quickly angled my broom downwards. I could at least try, right? James braked to avoid a Bludger that Richard had sent flying at him, and I gained a little on him then. I was flying right next to him.

James looked sideways at me and grinned. "I can't believe you fell for that trick earlier," he chortled.

I didn't answer him, just prayed that my broom would go faster. Just a little bit faster, and I would pass him.

I heard a roar as somebody scored. "That's 130-20 for Gryffindor," shouted Sam.

A Gryffindor Chaser shot in front of us, and we both braked as fast as we could to allow the procession to cross in front of us. After James' team's Chaser came Ayla, who screamed at me to get moving, and then another Gryffindor Chaser. By the time that they were past us, the Snitch was gone.

James swore and spun around, looking for the Snitch.

"And Ayla Wood's gotten the Quaffle from Brianna Xylander of Gryffindor," cried Sam. "She shoots... And she scores! 130-30 for Gryffindor."

Soon enough, the score was 180-30 for Gryffindor. We were a hundred fifty points behind. If James caught the Snitch, we would lose by three hundred points. I couldn't let that happen. I searched frantically for the fluttering golden ball, but couldn't find it. I glanced around for James -- and found him leaning forward on his broom, climbing steeply into the clouds.

I shot after him, and a moment later, the Snitch flew downwards out of a cloud and straight past the both of us. I spun around faster than James did, and sped after the Snitch. The scene was all too similar to the tryouts. I hoped it would have the same outcome.

I flew after the Snitch with my heart hammering in my chest. James was after me like a racehorse from the starting gate, and he was gaining on me fast. The Snitch fluttered away, taking its time. It was as if the brainless golden ball knew that we would never catch up to it.

I willed my Cleansweep 19 to put on a new burst of speed. And somehow, it did. I gained on the Snitch and James fell slightly behind me. A moment later, I was clutching the Snitch tightly in my left hand, smiling triumphantly. I'd brought the score up to a tie!

Everybody landed and got off of their brooms. I looked over at James, smiling sympathetically, but he was glaring at me. The smile faded off my face.

"Be happy," he said spitefully. "That was just a fluke. You won't be so lucky next time, _Taylor._"

I stared at him for a moment, then turned away, tears pricking the back of my eyes. All this time, I'd thought that he was my friend. How could one stupid Quidditch game change everything?

***

I hid behind a tapestry on the sixth floor. There was an old tunnel there. Rose had told me that it used to be a tunnel out of the castle, but it had collapsed, and now it was just a cave in the wall, big enough for two or three people. I sat with my back against the cold stone wall and tucked my knees into my chest, letting the tears run free.

I sat there for what felt like hours. It was dark behind the tapestry. When a square of light shone into the cave-like hole, I looked up, startled.

It was James.

He stared at me for a moment. He was still in his red-and-gold Quidditch uniform. He held his _Lightningbolt_ in one hand. Then he came into my hiding place and let the tapestry fall into place behind him. He propped his broom up against the wall and sat down beside me.

"I'm sorry," he said, so quietly that I had to strain my ears to hear him. "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings."

I rested my forehead on my knees and refused to look at him.

"Elle? I'm really sorry." I felt his hand resting on my shoulder and looked up at him. "Are you okay?"

I shook my head violently and he pulled me into him, much like that day by the lake last summer.

After I'd cried out all of my tears, I pulled back to look at him. "Friends?" I asked, holding out my hand.

He stared at my extended hand for a minute of unbearable silence. Then he took it.

"Friends."

***

_**Author's Note: **__Hooray! Another chapter done! AND Elle and James are officially friends! Wasn't that mean of him, though? I guess it wasn't THAT mean, but it seemed like it in Elle's mind. She's kind of an overreacting person. :) Now, since my computer is officially the most evil computer ever (just kidding, it might crash on me now that I've insulted it), I'm going to reply to reviews here._

**_HPobsessssssed7: _**_Thanks again for reviewing. I don't know how you come up with something to say about almost every chapter, but somehow you do it! :) I wish my birthday was on Halloween, too. ;)_

_**MzNocturnal: **First of all, is the Sims 3 better than the Sims 2? Well, of course it's better, I shouldn't even need to ask that. :) But my computer (awesome as it is, I have to suck up to it now that I've insulted it) doesn't have the right requirements for the Sims 3. Luckily, Sims 2 works, and that's a lot better than the first Sims, which is what I had before. Anyways, thank you thank you thank you for giving me the most amazing review I've ever gotten!!!!!!!!!!!!! You made my day. :D  
_


	15. Phoenix

Chapter Fifteen

Christmas that year was at the Potters'. Grandma and I were invited, as if we were part of the family. We walked to Grimmauld Place, which was close to Grandma's house -- my house. In every window along the way, we could see twinkling Christmas lights and hear the delighted squeals that accompanied the opening of each present. We stood on the edge of the street, staring up at the join between numbers eleven and thirteen, wondering what to do now.

"Elle!" called a voice from behind us.

I spun around to see James walking quickly towards us with a plastic grocery bag in one hand.

"Mum ran out of flour," he said, grinning and holding up the bag. "Refused to Summon some and made me go to the store." He shook hands with Grandma and hugged me briefly. "I think you're the last to arrive. Everybody else Apparated and whatnot." He smiled again. "Now I know why Mum sent me out. I suppose you guys can't get in..."

He dug his free hand into his pocket and pulled out a slip of parchment. "This is like my key," he explained, holding it up. "If you don't know exactly what it says, the house won't appear. A lot of people show up to pester Dad about the whole saving-the-wizarding-world thing." He shrugged, as though his father weren't a famous wizard who I had found only yesterday on a Chocolate Frog card.

I read what he shoved under my nose. The thin, slanted letters were written in dark ink.

_The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London._

He showed it to Grandma.

"What's the Order of the Phoenix?" I asked.

"I'll tell you inside. Think about what you've just read," he urged.

I thought. _The headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number twelve, Grimmauld Place, London... _And something started to appear in front of me. An old door popped into existence, then the rest of the house. Stairs grew out of the ground as if I were watching a tree grow on fast-forward, and number twelve pushed its neighbours apart to make room for it. The celebrating families in numbers eleven and thirteen seemed not to notice that their houses were moving of their own accord. James led us up the stone stairs and tapped his wand on the door, which had no keyhole. There were several metallic clicks and the door swung inwards.

The building must have once been dark and gloomy; even now, the walls were painted dark to match the old-fashioned lamps lighting the narrow hallway. A thick, new-looking carpet covered the floor. Stairs led upwards on our left. Curtains hung on the wall of the first landing.

"Everlasting Sticking Charm on _that_ one," whispered James. "You'll want to either be quiet, or put on some earmuffs. Mum and Dad had a time of it when the three of us were little. So much screaming..." He let us along the hallway and down a narrow set of stairs into a large room with a long table and people everywhere.

"James!" called Ginny from the stove. "I need the flour!" James scurried over to his mother and gave her the flour, then returned to Grandma and I.

"I believe I promised you I'd tell all about the Order of the Phoenix," he said with another smile, and began. "When my parents were at Hogwarts, they -- no. I'll start at the _very_ beginning." He began again. "When my _grand_parents -- Lily and James Potter -- left school, they joined a secret organization, founded by Albus Dumbledore, called the Order of the Phoenix. The resistance against Lord Voldemort. Needless to say, they didn't succeed, because when Dad was a year old, Voldemort himself showed up at their house and murdered the two of them. He tried to murder Dad, too, but he couldn't. You know the story until later, so I'll skip to the summer before Dad's fifth year. He was retrieved from his aunt and uncle's and taken here, to Grimmauld Place. To the Blacks' house. Sirius Black -- accused murderer, escaped from Azkaban, Dad's godfather -- had offered to let the Order of the Phoenix, reinstated now that Voldemort was back, use it as Headquarters. Which was perfect; this place is unplottable, you know. Of course, when Sirius died later that year, his cousin Bellatrix -- faithful servant to Lord Voldemort, like most of his family -- got the house, even though Sirius had entrusted it to Dad. Order of the Phoenix evacuated temporarily, just in case. No need, really. But when _Dumbledore _-- Secret Keeper of the place -- died, then everybody who he'd told about this place became Secret Keepers. That note was written by Dumbledore. Did you know that you're now a Secret Keeper? Anyone that you tell about this location will be able to get in. Anyways, Severus Snape, one of the new Secret Keepers, was now a known Death Eater, having killed Dumbledore. Of course, he was a double agent, as everybody found out later, and he'd arranged with Dumbledore that he would be the person to kill him, when 'the time came.' But the Order didn't know that yet. So the house wasn't used much -- at all, really -- anymore. Dad and Uncle Ron and Aunt Hermione used it as a hideout when they were trying to defeat Voldemort. But then they Apparated back from the Ministry and a Death Eater managed to grab onto them, so Aunt Hermione had given him the secret, I guess, and they took to camping in an old tent and moving every couple of days. Then Mum and Dad moved in here after the Battle. Took down most of the security enchantments -- said it was a bit of a pain going through all of them every time they came into the house."

"James!" called his grandmother, the only person I still called Mrs Weasley. "Come help set the table!"

James sighed. "See you in a few," he said, counting the number of people present as he walked over to a dresser and started pulling out cutlery. Rose and Lily put plates out, and Hugo put jugs of pumpkin juice on the table.

Ten minutes into the delicious breakfast, Harry's godson stood up, clearing his throat for attention. Twenty-year-old Teddy had a rather boyish appearance. Although Rose told me that Teddy was a Metamorphmagus, and could change his appearance at will, he seemed to have a preference for longish, light brown hair and hazel waited until everybody was silent, then looked around at all of us and began nervously. "I have an announcement," he said. "Er... I..." His gaze traveled around the table before he continued. "Victoire and I are going to get married," he blurted out.

George wolf-whistled, and a couple of people clapped. Then Mrs Weasley voiced the concern that a bunch of people obviously had.

"But aren't you a little bit... young to get married?" she asked hesitantly. "I mean, Vic's only nineteen, and Teddy, you're only twenty..."

"But we love each other," Teddy insisted. "That's what matters."

"But -- but," Mrs Weasley faltered. Her husband laid a hand on her shoulder and whispered something in her ear. Teddy sat down and the conversation awkwardly moved on.

After breakfast, I went with Rose to gather around Victoire next to Lily, Molly, Ginny, Hermione, Angelina, Audrey, and Victoire's mother, Fleur. We stared in awe at the large diamond engagement ring on Victoire's left hand, then went into the backyard to play Quidditch. I used a spare broom and played Seeker against Lily. I caught the Snitch, but we still lost because James was a terrible keeper, and Angelina, Ginny and Teddy were all excellent Chasers.

After Quidditch we opened presents. Then the parents and grandparents went out in the backyard for tea, and the kids -- including Teddy and Victoire -- organized a gigantic hide-and-seek game. I was 'it' first. I looked for twenty minutes without finding anybody at all. I was lookking in all the easy places -- in the closets, behind doors, places that anybody who knew the house would avoid. On my sixth trip up the stairs, I topped on the landing and examined the curtains hanging on the wall. _Everlasting Sticking Charm on _that_ one. You'll want to either be quiet, or put on some earmuffs, _James had said earlier. Breathing as quietly as I could, I tiptoed across the landing and pulled the curtains back.

I seemed to be looking out a window at the face of an old lady with yellowing teeth and hollowed-out cheeks. Her black hair was tangled and when she saw me, she opened her mouth and began to scream.

"_Mudbloods!_" she screamed. "_Stains of dishonor! Blood traitors!_"

I screamed, too. Loudly. The parents, sitting outside, sipping tea and making small talk, didn't hear me. James, however, was hiding, evidently, very close by, for he appeared out of nowhere and pulled me away from the window-portrait. Teddy arrived a moment later and pulled the resisting curtains shut with some effort; the screaming ceased.

"Are you okay?" asked James anxiously.

"Who _was_ that?" I answered him with another question.

"Sirius' mother," explained James. "She doesn't seem to like you, does she? It's okay. She doesn't like Mum, either. Or Aunt Hermione, Uncle Ron, Uncle George, Uncle Percy, Uncle Charlie, Uncle Bill, or my grandparents. Come to think of it, she doesn't really like _anybody_," he said thoughtfully.

Lily poked her head over the edge of the banister. "What happened?"

"Elle set off Mrs Black," said James.

"Loony old bat," muttered Lily, and disappeared.

"She means Mrs Black, not you," James said, grinning. "Although you'd fit the description pretty well, too."

***

_**Author's Note: **__Ah, Mrs Black. I really think they should have had her in the fifth movie. Don't you?? Because I was really looking forward to seeing her portrait screaming its head off. =D Thanks to MzNocturnal and HPobsessssssed7 for reviewing!  
_


	16. Quidditch

Chapter 16

"So, how'd the rest of the holiday go with your Grandma?" Al asked as the Hogwarts Express pulled out of King's Cross.

"Good, I guess," I replied. "Granddad and Nana are coming back from traveling Europe in May." To tell the truth, I didn't really miss Granddad and Nana. I was perfectly fine without them; they were the type of people who made you think that you had to be perfect, that you weren't good enough.

Rose challenged me to a game of wizard chess, which I lost by a landslide. My pieces were indignant that I'd tried to move them myself, especially my king and queen. Rose's chess set loved her.

"Yours will learn to like you," she promised.

I tried to get the thought of chess pieces _learning _anything out of my head.

Ayla knocked on the door of the compartment. "How were your holidays, everybody?" Then she shook her head. "Why am I even asking?" she sighed. "Fred already told me the whole story. I especially like the part where you discovered Mrs Black's portrait, Elle." She gave me one of her rare smiles, but it disappeared quickly. "Quidditch practice after dinner."

"But it's Monday!" I protested.

"Yes," replied Ayla, "but our next game is Saturday morning. You've had two and a half weeks to relax. You shouldn't be complaining."

***

The week flew by in a whirlwind of reviewing what we'd learned before Christmas break, Quidditch practices almost every night, and doing my homework by wand-light in the common room until the wee hours of the morning. Rose attempted to stay up with me, helping me with the essays and worksheets that the teachers gave us, but almost always ended up asleep in an armchair by midnight. Ayla seemed to always come down into the common room at three in the morning or so and shoo us out of the common room and downstairs to bed, but once Rose was sound asleep in her bed, I sat on mine, wand lit and Soleil running around, pooing on my homework.

Saturday morning, I was woken up by Carla yelling in my ear.

"The game starts in half an hour!" she screeched.

I shot up in bed. "Half an hour?"

Carla nodded, and I groaned, jumped out of bed and started running around as though the room were on fire, grabbing clothes and things and pulling them on as fast as I could, which resulted in me falling over, tangled up in the curtains that hung around my bed. Carla laughed and began to untangle me. By the time I was able to get up, I could have been halfway done my breakfast if I'd gone at a normal speed.

We raced down to the Quidditch pitch and burst into the change room just as Ayla was finishing her game-strategy pep talk.

"_Where _have you been?" demanded Ayla.

"Elle slept in," panted Carla.

"Don't let it happen again." She turned away from us and back to the rest of the team. "Now, Slytherin is known for their stealth and cunning. We'll need to outsmart them if we're going to win." Professor Chang's whistle blew from outside. "Alright, come on," ordered Ayla, and we marched out of the room and onto the Quidditch pitch.

I took in Slytherin's Seeker. He was a big sixth-year with pound upon pound of muscles and short black hair. He grinned evilly at me. I gulped and mounted my broom. I supposed I had an advantage to this chunk of a Seeker. I was smaller, and could probably cut through the air faster. But the big guy scared me; he would hurt more than a Bludger if he flew into me. Ayla said that was a Slytherin tactic -- injuring all of the opposition's players so they could win more easily. To me, Slytherin sounded like a bunch of cowards. But strong, smart cowards.

Professor Chang blew her whistle again, and everybody took off. I started searching for the Snitch. It was a pretty cloudy day; the Snitch must have flown into a cloud to hide. I cruised around the pitch, searching for the Snitch.

"Slytherin score! 10-0 for Slytherin," came Sam Jordan's voice over a roar of approval from the green-and-silver portion of the crowd.

I glanced around to see a Slytherin Chaser flying around the pitch with one fist in the air, smiling triumphantly. Jayden, our Keeper, looked distraught.

I resumed my search for the Snitch, listening to Sam's commentary with one ear. "Carla Wilde, second-year Ravenclaw Chaser, has the Quaffle... She flies towards the Slytherin hoops... Passes the Quaffle off to Wood... Wood shoots -- and she misses," he shouted. "Flint of Slytherin has got the Quaffle... He's approaching the Ravenclaw hoops, he shoots, he -- oooohhh, that's gotta leave a mark."

Professor Chang's whistle blew. I spun my Cleansweep 19 around to see her yelling at Flint. Something was lying at the foot of our center hoop... Ayla landed and ran towards the thing. Carla landed next, then Richard. I followed their lead and ran over to them.

The thing was Jayden. Our Keeper was down. The Quaffle seemed to have hit her in the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. I looked up at the sound of laughter only to see a big Slytherin Beater swinging his bat and laughing merrily. Jayden's face was bleeding; apparently, the Beater had shot a Bludger at her as she fell. He had good aim; that must have been why he was on Slytherin's Quidditch team. Now I knew that Ayla had been telling the truth when she told me about Slytherin's tactics. A couple of teachers came running onto the pitch and conjured a stretcher out of thin air. With a wave of their wands, they lifted Jayden onto it and levitated it away. When I took off again, I kept an eye out not only for the Snitch, but for any Slytherin players coming my way.

The game was uneventful for a few minutes, the Quaffle getting passed from Chaser to Chaser, back and forth between the teams. Carla scored, bringing the score up to 20-10 for Slytherin. I looked around and saw the Beater that had sent a Bludger at Jayden speeding towards me, a look of determination on his face. At the last second, I managed to get out of the way. I breathed a sigh of relief; I had escaped being stuck on the handle of the Beater's broom like a marshmallow on a stick.

Several goals were scored, leaving the Slytherin Beaters to go after our Chasers in an attempt to prevent us from scoring.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a ray of sunshine glinting off a reflective metal surface.

The Snitch.

I looked around, keeping one eye on the little golden ball as I made sure that nobody was watching me. Then I dove towards the Snitch, hoping that it would be too late for the Slytherin team to try and stop me. I prayed that they wouldn't notice me.

"And it looks like Taylor has spotted the Snitch!" howled Sam.

So much for that plan. I accelerated, hoping that I would get to the Snitch before the Slytherin Beaters and Chasers got to me. The muscular Slytherin Seeker was flattened to his broom (which didn't do much to get his broom to go faster), but I was much closer to the fluttering wings of the Snitch than he was. I glanced around at my pursuers. The Beaters were coming in from either side with their bats raised; there were two Chasers coming at me from behind, one from in front, and all five of them were closing in on me fast. Somehow, I got my Cleansweep 19 to push its handle into the air at the last second; I seemed to jump over the oncoming Chaser, but the Slytherins were fast -- instead of running into each other, they braked quickly and resumed the chase.

I reached out my left hand as I approached the Snitch, and I felt my heart leap when my fingers closed around the little golden ball. I held it up triumphantly, Sam's voice echoing in my ears so that I couldn't hear a thing he was saying over the roar of the crowd. Then I felt something crash into me from behind, and everything went black.

***

_**Author's Note: **Ooooohhhh... What happened??!! Except you can probably guess. But yeah. Um... Thank you to Chelsea2013 and HPobsessssssed7 for reviewing! Er... I don't really have much to say. Except that I don't have to do any more swimming lessons, HOORAY!!!!! And I'm having my birthday party tonight... Even though it's a whole month after my ACTUAL birthday. So yeah. Anyways, I'll try to get Chapter 17 done as soon as possible!_

_PS: Oh yeah, and if anybody reviews, they get a special surprise -- the first chapter to an actual story that I'm writing, called **Tazya**. That is, they get it IF they swear not to steal the idea or anything. And if they want it, of course. If you don't want it, you don't have to read it. Anyways, this is NOT a bribe, I just want to know what some people think about the idea for the story. :)  
_


	17. Hospital

Chapter Seventeen

When I opened my eyes, everything around me was white. My throat was dry and my body felt as though it were broken into a million tiny little pieces, as if I'd shattered like Nana's vase that I dropped three years ago. My nose felt stuffed up, and my eyelids were still partially stuck together. I blinked a couple of times so that my eyes would open properly.

"Only six visitors at a time!" said a loud voice.

"There _are_ six," said another voice. I turned my head, very slowly, to see six shadowy forms sitting beside me. A lady stood behind them; the nurse, Madame Pomfrey. James had once told me that Madame Pomfrey must not be fully human -- she had been the nurse at Hogwarts since before his grandparents, Lily Evans and James Potter (his namesake) had arrived for their first years at the school.

"There are twelve," Madame Pomfrey pointed out.

"Yeah, six for each."

"She's awake!" said an excited voice. Rose.

The other five heads snapped back to look at me -- James, Al, Scorpius, Ayla and Carla.

"Wh--" I started talking, but my throat was too dry. James held out a glass of water. I drank some and started again. "What happened?"

"The Slytherin Beaters and Chasers didn't stop after you'd caught the Snitch," explained Ayla angrily. "They ran right into you. Professor Chang gave them detention. The game was over once you'd caught it; they shouldn't have done that after the game was over."

"They shouldn't have done it anyways," snapped James.

Ayla sighed. "I know. I don't know how they're even _allowed_ to use tactics like that, but you and Jayden are _both_ hurt." She looked over at the bed next to mine, where Jayden was lying, unconscious. Her two best friends, Bella Irving and Ivy Teesdale, and her boyfriend, Alec Halliday, seventh-year prefect, stood grouped around her bed with the rest of the Ravenclaw Quidditch team. "I'll have to call in Danielle and Timothy until the two of you are better."

I held back a groan. Danielle Usher, the one I'd beaten out of sheer luck at tryouts. The one that hated my guts for beating her. Last year's Seeker for Ravenclaw, the one who had helped the team win the Quidditch Cup. What if the team liked her better and wouldn't take me back?

***

"Don't worry about it," said Rose after everybody else had left, when I voiced my concern. "You won the tryouts fair and square. Danielle will only be on the team until you're better; then you can play again. Trust me."

But I was still worried. Just because that was the way it 'always happened' didn't mean it would be exactly the same this time, did it? Ayla and the team might decide that Danielle was a better Seeker than I was (which was completely true) and refuse to let me back on the team. Danielle would lead the team to victory again, and everybody would forget about stupid little Elle Taylor, the second-year who thought she could play Quidditch.

And what if I never got better? What if I was injured for life? I wouldn't be able to go back on the team, and the scenario would end in much the same way -- Danielle would lead the team to victory again, and everybody would forget about stupid little Elle Taylor, the second-year who went around in a wheelchair because she thought she could play Quidditch.

The next day, Rose came to visit me, bringing the work they'd done in class that day. I told her the things that I'd thought about all last night, tossing and turning, trying to go to sleep.

"Madame Pomfrey's a _witch,_" she reminded me. "She has all sorts of magic spells and potions and medicines to make you better. You'll be fine, Elle. I swear you will."

"But --"

"No buts. Do I need to call her over here and give you a sleeping potion? Because I will."

***

I was in the hospital wing for _four days_ before Madame Pomfrey allowed me to return to my dormitory -- and even then, I wasn't fully free. I was only to leave Ravenclaw Tower for meals, and I had to come back to the hospital wing every evening after dinner for a check-up. This schedule lasted for another three days. Finally, my life returned back to normal -- although I wasn't allowed to play Quidditch for two more weeks.

During my 'house arrest,' as I liked to call it, I spent all day working on the homework that Rose had brought me the night before. In this way, I wasn't too far behind when I was permitted to return to my classes.

Ayla insisted that I go down to the Quidditch pitch and watch the team's practices. It was as if the team was rubbing it in my face that Danielle was a better Seeker than I was. I sat next to Jayden at these practices, the both of us wrapped up warmly in blue-and-bronze scarves, hats and gloves, watching in silence, never speaking. Jayden had a week less of 'quiet time' than I did. She was lucky; her replacement, Timothy Maddock, wouldn't have as long to prove that he was better than her. Danielle, however, was an amazing Seeker. I had to admit it to myself. I could never compare to her. Ayla would boot me off of the team. I knew it.

***

_**Author's Note: **__Sorry it's a bit short, and for the delay... I got re-obsessed with the Sims 2... :) Anyways, the same offer goes for this chapter as for the last one -- review and you get the first chapter of Tazya. I'll tell what Tazya's about here._

_Tazya is the eighth and last daughter of the Kein and Keina (King and Queen) of Keindo Deema (Kingdom of Diamonds). Lord Snaka, the greedy ruler of Tarnad, is trying to take over Keindo Deema for the deemameits (diamond mines). When Snaka attacks on Tazya's thirteenth birthday, the entire population of Keindo Deema shelters at the Dorfoon (the Dropoff) over the Deemarei (diamond river). And when Snaka discovers their hiding place, Tazya must flee with her twin sisters, Elbarza and Ainlizar, and two guardians -- Zarovic, the armsmaster, and Hezra, the court magician -- to Keindo Saffra (Kingdom of Sapphires, one of Deema's sister kingdoms; the other is Keindo Eimaro, the Kingdom of Emeralds) for help and safety. On their journey, they meet elves (who live in Evusunio), dwarves (who live in the Heimeile Mountains), and Leaflings (who live in the Forest, and I like to think that I made them up. I can't be sure, though -- a lot of times I get ideas from a story I've read, so I may just be copying them. The name, at least)._


	18. Forget

Chapter Eighteen

Despite my worst fears, Ayla let me back onto the team as soon as Madame Pomfrey allowed me within a six-foot radius of a broomstick again. I found a bubbly happiness inside when Ayla was talking to me about the strategy for the next game; partially because I was back on the team, and partially because Danielle was glowering at me from across the common room the whole time.

Soon enough, my life was completely back to normal. I was now, after two years, able to completely ignore Kaylee, who spent as little time as possible in my presence. What time she was forced to be in the same room as Rose and I, she made up for by sneers, dirty looks, and whatever insults she could think of.

Before we knew it, second-year exams were coming up. And on top of all the studying, the teachers were lecturing all the second-years on what courses were available for our third years. The Friday before exams started, we were all given a long list of the available classes.

Next year was the year that Hogwarts would get confusing. Because of the extra courses available for third-years and older students, we wouldn't have the same classes every day. Each class would be held two times a week; instead of having seven courses like we had for the first two years (Astronomy, Potions, Charms, Transfiguration, Defence Against the Dark Arts, History of Magic and Herbology), we would be able to add up to three more. The regular seven were mandatory until one reached their sixth year.

Rose and I signed up for all the same extra classes. We chose Ancient Runes, Care of Magical Creatures and Muggle Studies. That last one, Rose insisted upon. I laughed when she suggested it, but she insisted that since I already knew everything there is to know about Muggles, I could help her, and it would raise my grade point average. Rose jumped up and down for joy when I finally agreed, then tried to convince every student in our year to tke the class as well (needless to say, she failed miserably). When Rose, Al, Scorp and I visited Hagrid on Sunday afternoon, Hagrid was ecstatic that all four of us would be taking his class, Care of Magical Creatures. He then proceeded to insult Professor Grubbly-Plank, the woman who sometimes substituted for him, using such obscene language that Rose and I were almost out the door to go ask Professor Slughorn for a Calming Potion, at which point a very worked-up Hagrid attempted to calm down.

Exams were harder and more stressful than the year before. The week didn't seem to pass quite as quickly as last year. At the end of the week, I realized that not only had my parents been dead (I shuddered at the very thought) for over a year now, but that I'd been forgetting about them.

***

_**Author's Note: **__Sorry it's such a short chapter, not even a page. But I've already finished the next chapter, and it will be up momentarily._


	19. Thinking

Chapter Nineteen

I supposed that was what you were meant to do when somebody died; forget, and move on. Forget the pain, forget the sadness. Right? But if said person, or people, were your parents, did the rule still apply? Were you still supposed to forget and move on?

On the night before the Hogwarts Express took us back to King's Cross, while everybody else in the castle was asleep, I removed the Mickey Mouse sucker from its place of honour on my nightstand. Soleil cheeped impatiently, begging to be let out of her cage, so i put her on the bed and let her run around. I laid the sucker out in front of me, barely focusing on the yellow blur of Soleil racing excitedly around it.

To think that I had once thought of the sucker as a sign of how little they cared for me. Now I would never get a chance to see them again. I couldn't believe that I was mad at them when they departed this world. Perhaps _this_ was why everybody said to show your affection before it was too late.

I would never see my parents again. Ever.

Unless... Maybe when I died, they would be there, waiting for me.

I'd never really thought about dying. I'd never really had the need. But now that I thought about it, _did_ I believe in heaven, and God, and everything to do with that? I didn't even know. When I was younger, I liked to think that the answer was no, because I didn't want to go to church. Crazy, right? But things weren't that simple, were they? You didn't have to go to church to believe. I realized that no matter if you did or didn't believe in God, you had to believe in _something._ I mean, _something_ created this world, and all the people and animals on it. So if it wasn't God, who was it? Every culture had their own gods, but overall one special god, the one in charge, the one who made Earth.

So I agreed with most people -- something (God?) had made Earth.

But did I believe that if you were good and pure, you went to heaven, and if you weren't, you went to hell?

_Damn. Damn, damn, damn, damn, damn._

Did that thought, right there, make my soul 'dirty'? Was I going to hell now?

Maybe it wasn't like that. Maybe you only went to hell if you did something _terrible_. Like murder, or rape. Those things did happen. It wasn't pretty, but it happened. Nobody could deny that. But just because somebody swore or something didn't necessarily mean that they were a bad _person,_ did it? They could still go to heaven. And if they couldn't, they _should_ be able to.

But did heaven even _exist?_ Was there some place, high in the sky, with golden gates, filled with all the people who died, with everything you wished for ready to appear? Somewhere that everybody who had already died waited for you to arrive?

The sky outside was lightening. I had thought the whole night through, and I didn't feel tired. Not in the slightest. Maybe, if everybody sat and _thought_ all night instead of sleeping, it would be just as restful. _And_ everybody would understand things a whole lot better.

***

_**Author's Note: **__So this one's short too. BUT, you got two chapters in one day!!! Thanks to everybody who reviewed this story (I just woke up, so I'm too tired to open up the Internet and check who exactly reviewed, so I'm just thanking everybody as a whole). I love you guys!_


	20. Won't

Chapter Twenty

Unfortunately, the fatigue kicked in about ten minutes into the train ride back to King's Cross. I spent the duration of the journey with my face squished up against the window of the compartment. I was awakened several times, courtesy of Rose, Al, Scorp and James playing Exploding Snap next to me.

"Elle," whispered a voice. "Elle, wake up. We're back!"

I opened my eyes. Rose was sitting next to me, poking me in the arm repeatedly in an attempt to get me up.

"You can stop poking me now," I said pointedly after a minute.

"Oh," she said sheepishly, standing up.

were almost last to get off the train, judging by the overwhelming amount of people on the platform. It took us several minutes to find anybody we knew -- and even then, it wasn't Rose's parents _or_ Grandma. We were only able to find who we were trying to find when some people began to leave the platform, shouting out goodbyes and see you next year's to their friends.

For some reason, Grandma looked worried. I decided not to mention it right away; maybe it was just my imagination. It would probably be smarter to wait and see if she was still anxious later.

Grandma was completely silent as we walked to the car. We'd been driving for a while when I noticed that we weren't going home.

"Where are we going?" I asked, breaking the unbearable silence.

"Your grandparents." She left it at that.

"W--wh--_why?_"

"Because they asked me to bring you," she replied.

"But --"

"No buts, Elle," she said.

"What do we tell them about all _that?_" I asked her, gesturing towards the backseat of the car, which held my trunk, my broomstick, Soleil's cage, and Storm's cage. Granddad and Nana had no clue about the wizarding world. What did Grandma expect me to tell them? I could just see it now, playing out like a movie in my head.

_"What's that?"_

_"Oh, it's a Pygmy Puff."_

_"What's a Pygmy Puff?"_

_"A miniature puffskein from Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, in Diagon Alley, which is invisible to Muggles, who are people that aren't wizards or witches, like me."_

Because that would turn out _so_ well.

Before I knew it, Grandma had pulled into a paved stone driveway in front of a neat little wooden house with a chimney that merrily puffed out smoke. A neat paved pathway cut across the green lawn to the wooden steps. The front porch held a patio table and chairs, surrounded by potted plants. There was a window-box full of bright flowers at every single window in the house, and curtains pulled back to let light into all of the rooms, even though only one or two of them would have anybody in them. The white garage door, with its tiny little windows lining the top, would hold the white old-lady car, the one with the leather interior that smelled of cat and cigarettes. Cat for Nana, cigarettes for Granddad. Nana didn't smoke. Granddad hated cats. Nevertheless, Nana had six cats -- all girls, so that they wouldn't breed; they were kept in the house at all times so as not to get dirty -- and Granddad had placed three ashtrays in every room in the house, even the bathroom.

Grandma opened her door and climbed out of the station wagon. I grabbed the cages out of the back of the car and she grabbed the broomstick, holding it so that the neighbours would be less likely to see it. I was glad that Soleil was asleep; she could be mistaken for some sort of hamster toy or something.

We marched straight up to the door, put everything down on the porch, and went back for my heavy trunk, one of us at each end. Grandma rang the bell and we waited for a moment before we heard footsteps. The wooden door, with its impossible-to-see-through glass window, swung open and Nana gestured impatiently for us to bring my things in. I wondered why we couldn't just leave everything in the car.

Nana didn't hug me like Grandma would have done in this situation. She just turned away and ambled up the hallway, mumbling at us to follow her into the kitchen for tea.

***

When we were all settled down with our tea (personally, I hated the stuff -- much too watery for my tastes), Grandma and I on one couch and Granddad and Nana on the other, Nana finally spoke in a voice loud enough to hear.

"Thank you, Tracy, for bringing Elle here," she thanked Grandma. She looked at me, and silence fell again. The silence was worse than in the car with Grandma. I had never felt this awkward with anybody before.

"Er... How have you been?" I asked at random, not sure who I was even speaking to.

Nobody answered.

Granddad drained his tea and stood up. "Come with me, Elle," he rasped. "Time to get settled in."

"What?" My head whipped around. I stared at him. "I live with Grandma!"

"Go, dear," said Grandma tiredly. "Take Storm and Soleil with you."

"No!" I said. "I'm not staying here. I'm going with you!"

"You can't, honey," she said sadly, looking down at me.

"Why not?" I said stubbornly.

"I'm not allowed to take care of you anymore, dear," she explained. "The doctor says that I --"

"I don't care!" I protested. "I'm staying with you. I won't stay here!"

"Come, Elle," ordered Granddad, his hand closing around my wrist to take me away, down the hall to the room I was meant to call mine now, but I shook him off.

"I'm not going," I said stonily. "I won't. I'm staying with Grandma."

"Elle," said Nana, studying my face carefully. "You have to stay here now. I know that you've had a long year -- examinations at twelve years old, what _are_ they thinking -- but you must be tired, you can rest up and then --"

"You don't know _anything_ about my life!" I exploded. "You don't know _anything!_ I'm a _witch,_ Nana, a _witch!_ Do you still want me to be in your house?" She didn't answer me. "See? You don't even know what to say to me! You can't even form a word! You're too disgusted at the fact that I'm a witch to say _anything!_ What, do you think that my skin is going to turn green and I'm going to grow warts and hop on my broomstick and fly away cackling? And trust me, if you try and make me stay here, I _will_ get on my broom and fly away. I'll go to Rose's house, or James' house, or somewhere where you'll never find me and bring me back here. I won't stay here. I _won't!_"

***

Even so, Grandma left an hour later -- alone. Granddad and Nana left me alone for a while, but I could tell that they were close by. Too close for me to escape. Granddad was in the living room, one eye on the broomstick by the front door and one hand on his lit cigarette. Nana was out in the front yard under the pretense of weeding the flowerbed, but I knew that she was keeping both eyes on my window, pulling out flowers and weeds alike. I heard her shriek a few times when she realized she'd pulled out her beloved foxgloves or roses. I watched from the window as she attempted to replant her flowers.

I came out for dinner, but didn't talk, just pushed my mashed potatoes and meatloaf around on my plate, forming an acceptable pile of brown-and-white mush before excusing myself and going back to my cell. I refused to call it a room. It contained a bed and a dresser, and a lamp on the bedside table, and an alarm clock. Not even the digital kind, but one with hands going around and around. Except that the second hand never moved. Even after it got dark, the clock still read 1:32. Although it might have meant 1:32 in the morning. I couldn't tell.

I waited until I heard Granddad and Nana both snoring as if their lives depended on it. Then I opened the door and tiptoed down the hallway, carrying the two cages with me. Storm had her head under her wing, and Soleil was watching with tiny black eyes. I'd sternly whispered to her not to make a sound; I didn't know if she understood me or not, but she was silent.

I silently took my broomstick from where it leaned against the wall next to the front door.

Damn. How was I supposed to bring my trunk? I guessed I wouldn't fly for a while, so I could just drag it along. Not that I knew how to get anywhere from Granddad and Nana's. Well, I would just have to drag it along on the sidewalk as I went. I took several trips to get everything down to the sidewalk and behind a hedge, so that if Granddad or Nana woke up and happened to look out the window, they wouldn't see anything. Then I sat down on the edge of the road and rested a minute. I couldn't do this. I couldn't just walk down the street in the dead of night, taking everything a few meters at a time, stopping, resting, and moving on. It just wouldn't work. But I stood up again anyways, glancing up into the dark night sky, wondering what time it was. I picked up Storm's cage and my Cleansweep 19 and scurried along the sidewalk to another place where I could sit down. I darted back and grabbed Soleil's cage, but on the way to where I had set down Storm and my broom, I tripped on a crack in the sidewalk. Soleil's cage hit the ground and skidded into a bush, and I flung out both arms to stop my fall.

_BANG._

A gigantic purple object appeared at the edge of my vision, and I looked up at a triple-decker bus that had just appeared out of the thin air above some person's lawn. The bus skidded to a stop and a young man jumped out, boldly addressing the tree I was lying beneath.

"My name is Evan Tresson, and I will be your conductor this evening. Welcome to the Knight Bus..."

***

_**Author's Note: **__That last scene is slightly reminiscent of a scene in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban... :)_

_Thanks to the reviewers for the last chapter -- __**BlueRose22**__ and __**wishfulthinking123**__, and an anonymous reviewer (my first of those!), __**Liz**__._

_**Liz: **__I'm sorry if I seem to be shoving it down your throat. I really didn't mean to do that. I was just trying to express Elle's thoughts on the matter. Really, I wasn't trying to force anybody to believe anything. Elle doesn't really believe in God, more that _something_ has created the world, and God is a possibility to her. Also, about the point that I've skimmed through her second and third years, I wanted to say that she isnÕt in her third year yet, and is just finishing second year. Not much really happened in her second year, I agree, other than the Quidditch stuff, I suppose. Elle's third year will probably be more eventful -- I have a plan written down somewhere. It's kind of going off a part of a different story on Fanfiction; I've asked the author of that story if I can use the idea, and she's said yes, which is very exciting!!! Anyways, thanks for reviewing!_


	21. Bang

Chapter Twenty-One

"Welcome to the Knight Bus, emergency transport for the stranded witch or wizard," the man recited. "Just stick out your wand hand, climb on board and we'll take you anywhere you want to go." The man then seemed to realize that I wasn't the tree, and looked down at me. "Fell over?" he asked sympathetically. I nodded. "So you called us by accident?" I nodded again. The man sighed. "Want a ride anywhere?"

"Uh..." I thought fast. "Yes," I said decisively. "I need to get to... to London."

"That'll be eleven Sickles," said Evan Tresson. "For thirteen you get a hot chocolate, and for fifteen you get a hot chocolate and a toothbrush in the colour of your choice."

I managed to find eleven Sickles in my trunk. Evan helped me get my stuff onto the purple bus and up to the second deck.

_BANG._ I was flung forwards off my seat. _BANG._ The second I got back up, I fell again. I could see well enough out of the window that I knew we were transporting with each _BANG._

_BANG. _Country road. _BANG._ Narrow street with townhouses on both sides. _BANG._

"The Leaky Cauldron!" came Evan's cheerful voice, and he appeared to help me off. He waved his wand and a trolley appeared out of nowhere, next to me on the sidewalk in front of the Leaky Cauldron. "Thought you might appreciate this," he smiled, and before I could thank him, there was another _BANG_, and both he and the Knight Bus were gone.

It took me almost ten minutes to load my things onto the trolley so that they wouldn't fall off when I rolled the trolley along. I thought for a moment. Which way to go? I thought back to walking to Diagon Alley from Grandma's house. We'd come from _that_ direction. I started off, the wheels of the trolley squeaking just slightly as they went around and around.

It took me nearly an hour to get there. I walked right up the gravel path and knocked three times on the door, then rang the doorbell and waited. I had to wait for about ten minutes before I heard footsteps. I heard somebody press themselves up against the door to peer out of the peephole, and a sigh, then the door opened a tiny, tiny crack.

"What are you doing here, Elle?" Grandma whispered through the crack. "You haven't even been there a day, and already running away. You can't stay here."

"It's terrible there, Grandma," I whispered back. "_Terrible._ I hate it! I won't stay there. I won't. You can't make me. If I can't stay with you, I'll go somewhere else. But I'm not staying with Granddad and Nana."

She shut the door. I heard a click as the lock slid into place, and her slippered feet on the carpet as she shuffled back to her bedroom.

I had never felt so unwanted in my entire life. Why didn't Grandma want me? The only people who wanted me to stay with them were Granddad and Nana, and they didn't even particularly _like_ me. They didn't even like me before they knew I was a witch. They wanted Mum and Dad to have a little boy, so that the family name could carry on, and all that. They never wanted me. I didn't even know why they wanted me to live with them now.

Well, I wasn't going back. They probably wouldn't discover that I was gone until eleven o'clock in the morning, when they normally had breakfast, and by then, it would be too late. They would never find me.

I wheeled the trolley along until I reached the right place. I thought hard to remember the words, visualizing the slip of parchment that had been held in front of my eyes...

_The Headquarters of the Order of the Phoenix may be found at number 12, Grimmauld Place, London._

I opened my eyes, and the house was growing, just like it had last time I'd been here. I waited for th house to be fully formed before starting up the stone steps and knocking on the door. There was no doorbell. I waited... and waited... and waited... I knocked again. I couldn't hear anything until whoever it was reached the door and looked out the peephole. I saw a distorted eye in the little window-like glass circle, then the many noises of metal locks sliding back, and finally the door swung open.

"_Elle?_"

I tried to smile. "Hi, James." I bit my lower lip. "Um, is it alright if I stay here for a while, do you think? Grandma sent me to live with Granddad and Nana, but I don't want to stay with them, and I went back to Grandma's house, but she wouldn't let me in..."

"Come on in," he said tiredly, running a hand through his untidy black hair. "Um, wait right here. I'll go get my parents." He ran off up the stairs, leaving me in the dimly-lit hallway to wait. He returned several minutes later. His mother was on his heels, her long red hair in a braid and rubbing her eyes sleepily.

"So, can she stay here?" James was asking his mother as they reached the bottom of the stairs.

"I... I suppose so," she mumbled. "Why didn't you just ask me upstairs, instead of dragging me all the way down here?"

James looked confused. "I don't really know," he said finally. "I guess I should've asked you up there, then?"

She looked at him pointedly.

"I'll try and remember that for next time one of my friends shows up in the middle of the night," he grinned. "Thanks, Mum." He hugged her, and she started back up the stairs.

Once she was gone, James turned to me. "I guess you'll want a room to stay in, then?" He looked around. "Kreacher," he hissed, and with a _crack!_ the house-elf appeared next to us. "Elle needs a room," James explained. "Will you help me get her stuff upstairs?"

"Yes, Master James," said Kreacher. He snapped his fingers, and all my things disappeared. "Phineas Nigellus," he told James, and, with another loud _crack!_ he was gone.

James grinned at me and motioned for me to follow him upstairs. He pressed a finger to his lips as we passed Mrs Black's portrait, and stopped on the second-floor landing, opening the door on the right. "Here you are," he whispered. "See you in the morning, Elle. Come down to the kitchen when you want breakfast. Kreacher or Mum -- probably both -- will be down there." He ushered me into the room and continued up the stairs to his own room.

I looked around the room. There was two beds, a dresser, and a desk. A portrait in the corner portrayed a blank grey canvas. I wondered what was supposed to be painted in front of it. Beside the bed was my trunk, and Soleil and Storm's cages. My broom was leaned up against the wall next to them.

I didn't even bother to unpack or anything. I was still wearing my jeans and purple tank top, and that's what I fell asleep in.

***

I woke up to sunlight steaming through the open window. A light breeze flowed into the room, and I looked around, thinking through the night before. I remembered waiting for hours in the guest bedroom at Granddad and Nana's. I remembered the gigantic, purple, triple-decker bus. I remembered Grandma leaving me outside in the freezing cold -- whoever thought it would be so cold at one in the morning, right at the end of June? -- and I remembered James letting me into number twelve, Grimmauld Place.

I swung my legs out of bed and opened my trunk, picking out a navy blue skirt with white polka-dots and ruffles, and a white shirt. I brushed out my blonde hair until it hung straight to my elbows. Scrutinizing my reflection in the mirror above the dresser with grey-green eyes, I went downstairs and made my way into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Elle," said Ginny, looking up at me, smiling. Lily, who was sitting at the table, clearly still half-asleep, looked at me, still chewing. She swallowed and glanced at her mum.

"Why's _she_ here?" she asked.

Ginny continued to smile. "Her grandma kicked her out."

"Why?" Lily asked me.

"The doctor said she couldn't take care of me anymore," I replied, "and I didn't want to stay with Granddad and Nana."

Lily smiled at me. "So you ran away?"

"Yep."

"Cool!" Lily finished her eggs and put her dishes in the sink. "See you later," she said, and disappeared upstairs.

Ginny set down a plate of eggs and bacon in front of me. I thanked her and dug in. I was starving, thanks to not really eating any dinner the night before.

James appeared in the doorway, wide awake, unlike his sister. "Hey, Elle," he grinned, serving himself some eggs and bacon and sitting down across from me. "Sleep well?"

"Yeah," I replied. "You?"

He nodded. "You up for some Quidditch, once Al's up? He likes to sleep in, Merlin only knows why..."

I grinned. "Sure, as long as I get to be Seeker."

"You'll have to discuss that with Dad, if he's playing," James told me. "He loves playing Seeker. He was Seeker for Gryffindor for all seven years at Hogwarts."

"I thought you had to be in at least your second year to be on the team?"

"Well, yeah, but McGonagall saw his first flying lesson and pretty much _put_ him on the team. Dad was some kind of Gryffindor Quidditch legend. Basically, a legend, if you want to think of it that way. Ridding the world of a Dark wizard kind of makes you famous, you know?"

"I suppose," I said, finishing my breakfast and standing up. I put my dishes in the sink with Lily's and went back upstairs to unpack. I didn't know how long I'd be staying at Grimmauld Place, but I wanted to make my room as lived-in as possible, starting with clothes in every drawer and books on the shelf.

James came in partway through my unpacking. He sat down on the edge of the bed and watched me fold clothes into the dresser for a while.

"Ready?" he said finally.

"Ready for what?"

"Quidditch," he replied.

"Um, yeah. I'll be down in a few minutes."

James grinned and disappeared out the door.

I figured that I should change. I put on denim shorts instead of the skirt, and zipped up a hoodie over my white top, then grabbed my Cleansweep 19 and went into the backyard.

There weren't as many people as usual -- only six. Not really enough for a game. Ginny went inside to Floo Rose's family and see if they wanted to come over, and a few minutes later she returned with all four of them. Rose shrieked with delight when she saw me, and demanded that I tell her _everything_ later. Now, with ten people, it was a lot easier to get a game organized. Ron and Harry were Keepers, and James and I Seekers. Ginny, Hermione and Hugo were Chasers on Ron and James' team, and Rose, Lily and Al on mine and Harry's.

Somehow, in the fight to get to the Snitch forty-five minutes into the game, Lily flew right over top of James, grabbing the back of his shirt and slowing him down. I was pretty sure that was against the rules, but it was all fun and games, and I caught the Snitch. James brushed it off, saying that it was 'all Lily's fault' and he 'would've gotten it if Lily hadn't slowed him down' because his broom was better than mine. But his team won anyways, because Ginny was an amazing Chaser.

Rose and Hugo somehow convinced their parents to stay overnight. Rose was going to take the other bed in my room, and Hugo would take one of the smaller bedrooms on the third floor. Ron and Hermione claimed a large room with a bathroom attached on the fifth floor (at this point, I realized how large the Potters' house really was). Ginny and Harry allowed James and Al to Floo their friends to see if they could sleep over, as well. Scorp's parents insisted on dropping him off in person, so he didn't arrive until after supper. James' best friend, Royce Higgs, packed straightaway and traveled by the Floo Network the moment James withdrew his head from the fireplace.

After supper, Rose and I sat on our beds and I explained everything that had happened since Grandma and I had left King's Cross.

My last thought before I fell asleep was that I wished I could live at Grimmauld Place forever.

***

_**Author's Note: **__Hooray!!! Another chapter done!!! I was going to get her to go to Rose's, but she was already in London, and I didn't know how to get her to Privet Drive... So yeah. Thanks to __**HPobsessssssed7**__ and __**Madame J. Pontmercy**__ for reviewing!!!_

_I like exclamation marks!!! Possibly this is because I'm very excited, because my friend is going to switch out of Year-Long Drama into Year-Long Dance now!!! Hooray!!!_

_I'm taking an extremely hardcore dance camp for the week. Me and my friend are the suckiest people in the class. Everybody else is some kind of dance robot thing. They're all super-flexible and everything. I am sooooo sore. And I don't want to go into the lower level, because that's for 10-year-olds. And so that would suck._

_Somebody in a review mentioned that Elle is kind of faceless, so I did my best to describe her in this chapter. For the record, she has straight blonde hair down to her elbows, and grey eyes with green flecks. She has a few freckles on her nose, and she is about five-two, so pretty short. For some reason, I really like blonde hair and green/grey eyes. This is, possibly, because an ex-friend of mine once described me as a girl with "poop-brown hair and poop-brown eyes." She actually wasn't really my friend, just a girl in my ballet class. Anyways... Yeah. So there's Elle for you. :)_


	22. Surprise

Chapter Twenty-Two

When I woke up the next morning, the clock read 11:49 AM. I had slept for most of the morning.

I reached the kitchen to discover that everybody else was eating their lunch.

"Wow, Elle, I haven't seen you for _ages,_" grinned Al, stuffing half of a turkey sandwich into his mouth.

I just smiled and grabbed a ham-and-cheese sandwich off the big platter in the middle of the table. I was halfway through my sandwich when I heard the doorbell ring from the front hall.

"_Mudbloods! Stains of filth..._" shrieked Mrs Black, awakened by the noise.

Ginny took off up the stairs to get the door, Harry close on her heels to shut Mrs Black up. Ginny returned a moment later.

"Elle?"

I looked up. Ginny gestured for me to follow her. Bewildered, I pushed back my chair and followed Ginny up into the front hall.

Grandma was standing at the door, glaring at me. I wondered if, maybe, just maybe, this wasn't Grandma, and it was just some different person, because Grandma had _never_ glared at me. _Never._

Ginny went back down to the kitchen, leaving us alone. Neither of us spoke for the longest time. We just stared at each other.

"What are you doing here, Elle?" Grandma finally spoke.

"_Me?_ What am _I_ doing here? What are _you _doing here, Grandma?"

"I'm taking you back to your grandparents' house," she told me.

"No, you aren't," I said stubbornly.

"Elle," said Grandma warningly.

"I'm staying here. This is more of a home than Granddad and Nana's is," I told her. "I won't leave."

"Your grandparents are out of their minds with worry."

"I doubt that. They never wanted me. They wanted a handsome little boy to carry on the family name. And it's even worse now that they know I'm a witch. You think they _really_ want me back? Because they don't. They'll lock me up and pretend to all their friends that I have some sort of mental disorder, and not let me go back to Hogwarts. So I'm not going back. I'll stay here. Harry and Ginny will get me to King's Cross. They have to take James and Al and Lily, anyways. It'll be Lily's first year at Hogwarts, you know."

"Stop trying to change the subject, Elle," said Grandma. "You're going back to your grandparents' house, and that's final."

"No, I'm staying here, and that's final." I looked at her for a moment. "Unless _you_ want to take me back. To your house, I mean. Because that's where I _really_ want to be."

"I can't, Elle," said Grandma. "Doctor Harrison says that I can't take care of you anymore."

"Even just in the summer?"

Grandma sighed. "I'm not allowed. I --"

"Is everything all right?" Harry asked as he came back down the stairs.

Grandma looked at him, attempting a smile. "Yes, everything's fine."

"I won't go back to Granddad and Nana's," I repeated. "I'm either going to your house or staying here."

"Elle, why don't you go back down to the kitchen?" said Harry. "I'll talk to your grandmother for a minute."

I looked at him. He had a spark of some sort of idea in his eye. I went back down to the kitchen.

"Everything all sorted out?" asked Ginny, looking up at me as I sat back down, picking up my sandwich.

"I _think_ so," I said uncertainly. "I mean, I don't really know. Harry's up there talking to Grandma. He looked like he had an idea."

"Oh, no, an idea..." groaned Ginny, and raced up the stairs towards the front hall.

I sat in silence, nibbling at my sandwich. Everybody else in the kitchen sat there, staring at me, for a while. The kitchen was silent. I could hear voices upstairs, but I couldn't tell what they were saying.

After what seemed like a lifetime, Harry and Ginny came back into the kitchen, grinning, seeming very pleased with themselves. I looked up as they came in, hoping that they'd tell me what was going to happen, but they didn't say anything.

***

It had been almost a week. I was getting tired of waiting for somebody to tell me what was going to happen. James and I raced around the backyard on our broomsticks almost every day -- we couldn't really play Quidditch, now that Rose's family had returned to their own house. We tried to scrape a game together a couple of times, but Harry always had his Auror work to keep him busy. Ginny and Lily were always happy to fly around with us, but Al wasn't really into Quidditch, and four people weren't really enough for a game.

We were all eating dinner when the doorbell rang.

"_Mudbloods! Blood traitors! Stains of dishonour, beseeching the house of my fathers..._"

Ginny shoved her chair back and ran to get the door as if her life depended on it. Harry was close behind her. They both had identical looks of excitement on their faces. James, Al, Lily and I looked at each other and followed slowly, tiptoeing up the stairs and peering into the front hall.

"... Glad you could come, Tracy," Ginny was saying. Harry and Ginny were bringing suitcases into the house.

"Me, too," said a very familiar voice.

I raced up the last remaining stairs and squeezed past Harry and Ginny.

"Grandma!"

***

_**Author's Note: **__Wow, I can't believe I'm already on chapter twenty-two! AND this story officially has the most reviews out of ANY of my fanfics! (Actually, it was officially the most reviewed once it hit 7. =D Anyways, thanks to the reviewers for last chapter, __**HPobsessssssed7 **__and __**wishfulthinking123**__. AND also, __**wishfulthinking123**__ was the fiftieth reviewer! Hooray!!!_


	23. Push

Chapter Twenty-Three

_"Grandma!"_

I flung my arms around her, and she hugged me back.

_This_ was right. _This_ was the real Grandma.

"What are you doing here?" I asked, gazing up at her.

"Well, Harry and Ginny offered me a room on the first floor -- stairs aren't really good for my back, you know that -- and I thought, why not? It's a loophole in the doctor's rules. I won't _officially_ be looking after you... That'll be Harry and Ginny. But I can still see you and everything," she explained.

I turned to Harry and Ginny. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you!"

They cracked identical smiles. "Now," said Ginny, "who wants another hamburger?"

James, Al and Lily followed her eagerly back down to the kitchen. Harry summoned Kreacher, who appeared with a mighty _crack!_ and almost gave Grandma a heart attack.

"Kreacher," said Harry, "this is Tracy Bennett. She's Elle's grandmother, and while she's living here I want her to be comfortable. Put her things in the bedroom on the main floor, and please get her anything she needs. And that goes for Elle, too," he added over his shoulder as he went back down to the kitchen.

Kreacher smiled impishly at Grandma and snapped his fingers. Grandma's six gigantic suitcases disappeared with a _pop_ and Kreacher said, "Would you like me to show you to your room, ma'am?"

"Yes, thank you," replied Grandma, and followed Kreacher down the hall and into one of the bedrooms. I followed the two of them and sat on Grandma's new bed after Kreacher had gone back to the upstairs drawing room, where he said he had a lot of work to do on the curtains.

Grandma unzipped one of the suitcases and began putting away her clothes. After a few minutes, I opened another suitcase, which proved to be full of books. I spotted a bookshelf in the corner, dragged the suitcase over to it, and began to unload Grandma's books.

"How long are you staying for?" I asked. I was already dreading the answer. What if she said it wasn't permanent? I had wished I could stay at Grimmauld Place forever. If Grandma was going to live here, that meant I could, too, and my wish would be granted.

"I don't know, sweet pea," said Grandma, opening a second suitcase. She grabbed a big bag of shampoo bottles and toothpastes and went into the adjoining bathroom, leaving the door open as she pulled open a cupboard and began loading things into it. "But I hope it will be a long time."

***

It seemed like so much had happened, what with the running away from Granddad and Nana's, and the Knight Bus, and coming to Grimmauld Place, and Grandma coming to stay at Grimmauld Place, too. But in reality, it was only a couple of weeks into the summer vacation. The days passed by in a blur. Rose and her family came over a lot, playing Quidditch and sleeping over half the time. Ginny and Kreacher were excellent cooks; Rose and Hugo often begged to be allowed to stay for dinner. This almost always led to Rose and Hugo begging to be allowed to stay the night. Each and every time, Ron and Hermione looked surprised. You'd think they would see it coming, but they never seemed to.

It was several more weeks before our letters arrived from Hogwarts. Lily and Hugo were jumping up and down on the table when they realized that their letters had come, too. Ginny had to send off some red sparks to get them to stop before the table collapsed.

Hermione sighed at this point, saying that there was no more putting off going to Diagon Alley now. The first thing we did when we got to Diagon Alley was go to Gringott's, where Grandma had a load of Muggle money changed into Galleons, Sickles and Knuts. Then we went to the wand shop to get Lily and Hugo their wands. Some of us had to wait outside, because the little room was too small for all of us. Then we went to Eeylop's Owl Emporium to buy all of our owls some treats and things, and to Weasleys' Wizard Wheezes, where Rose purchased yet another Pygmy Puff from her uncle, and Rose, James and I walked in on Fred and Ayla in the back room when Angelina sent us to get some more Edible Dark Marks, because James had cleaned out the bin.

After we finished there, we moved onto the things that we actually needed, like parchment and robes and quills and Potions ingredients. We stopped at Florean's Ice Cream Parlour when we were done, then went back to the Leaky Cauldron and Flooed back to Grimmauld Place.

Ginny ordered James, Al, Lily and I to go to our rooms and pack after dinner, even though school didn't start for another week. I packed all of my new school supplies, but I didn't go anywhere near my books and clothes until the night before we went to King's Cross.

Lily burst into my room at six o'clock in the morning, already wearing her brand-new Hogwarts robes and screaming, "First day of school! First day of school!"

"Well, _somebody's _a keener," I mumbled, putting my pillow over my head and trying to ignore her.

"First day of school! First day of school!"

I groaned. "Go away, Lily!"

"First day of school..." She skipped out of the room, singing at the top of her lungs. A moment later, there was a loud _crash!_ and Lily and Mrs Black both began to scream.

"_Muggles in the house of my fathers..._"

"Mum! Al pushed me down the stairs!"

"How could I push you down the stairs?" bellowed Al from two floors above me. "I'm not even out of bed yet!"

I climbed out of bed as the yelling continued, and got dressed quickly, then ran downstairs for breakfast. In the kitchen, Al and Lily were still yelling at each other.

"You pushed me!" Lily was insisting.

"No, I didn't!"

"Did too!"

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Is the first day of the school year _always_ this hectic?" I muttered to James, pouring some cereal into my bowl.

"Yep." He grinned and grabbed the cereal box out of my hand. "And I pushed her, not Al. Looking almost exactly the same is pretty useful sometimes."

***

Harry put some kind of charm on the inside of the car so we could all fit into it. None of the passing Muggles seemed to notice when the car backed out of empty air, and we were off to King's Cross.

Eight sixth-years were strutting around Platform 9 3/4, showing off their shiny new Prefect badges. I saw Jayden Scamander, last year's Keeper, standing with a few of her friends -- including her boyfriend, Alec Halliday, who had just finished his seventh year -- displaying the Quidditch Captain badge. I was just thankful that Danielle Usher hadn't been made Quidditch Captain, because then I'd have _no_ chance of getting onto the team, what with Danielle being a Seeker.

Our compartment was pretty packed when the train pulled out of King's Cross. Besides James, Al, Lily, Rose, Hugo and I, there was Scorp and Royce Higgs. Five minutes into the ride, Annie and Carla appeared at the door and managed to squeeze themselves into the compartment. Everybody was sitting on each other and it felt like we were playing some monstrous game of Sardines as more and more people arrived. Finally, James, Royce and Kenneth Kay, another boy in James' year who had just arrived, fought their way out of the compartment and set off in search of the snack cart. Al and Scorp went off a little while later because the snack cart _still_ hadn't come by, and they were getting tired of waiting. Lily and Hugo pleaded for twenty minutes before we allowed them to stay; now there was space to breath, as long as Annie and Carla stood up, leaning against the window.

We all stayed in the compartment for the rest of the trip, heading off anybody that came along in search for James or Al. Eventually, James and Royce returned to tell us that we were almost there and we should change. They swung down their trunks from the rack, almost beheading Annie in the process, and pulled out their robes. They dragged Hugo out of the compartment to give the 'ladies some privacy,' as James put it.

Ten minutes later, we were out on the platform in Hogsmeade. In one hand, I held Storm's cage, and in the other, I held Soleil's. My trunk sat beside me. Before we left for King's Cross, Harry had been kind enough to put a shrinking charm on my broomstick so it would fit into the trunk, and he had taught me the spell to enlarge it back to its regular size. I would perform the spell as soon as I got to my dormitory.

"Elle!" I turned to see a carriage, drawn by what James said were Thestrals -- invisible to anybody who hadn't seen death. Rose was sticking her head out the window, calling my name. "Elle, get over here! We've saved you a seat!"

I left my things on the platform like everybody else (house-elves came down to the platform during the feast and zapped our things up to our dormitories), and climbed into the carriage. I took a seat between Rose and Carla, and the Thestrals began to pull the carriage up to the castle.

***

_**Author's Note: **__So there you are, another chapter finished! I can't believe how looooooooooooooooong this story's getting!!! Thanks to the people who reviewed last chapter -- __**HPobsessssssed7**__ and __**wishfulthinking123**__. And for third year (that's this one, people!!! Are you excited?) I have something BBBBIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGGG planned!_


	24. Sorting

Chapter Twenty-Four

When the carriage screeched to a stop, we all hopped out and started up towards the castle. When we got into the Great Hall, it was filling up fast. When everybody had arrived, Professor Flitwick led in the new first-years.

Lily and Hugo were looking around with similar expressions of awe and terror. With them were four other new first-years. The six of them were grouped together, walking as close to each other as they could.

Flitwick led them straight up to the stool holding the Sorting Hat. He unrolled a long sheet of parchment and began right away.

"Benjamin, Cassandra."

A terrified-looking, black-haired girl stepped forward and sat down on the stool. The Hat covered about half of her face so that we could only see her trembling lips.

"HUFFLEPUFF!"

I waited patiently as the next few eleven-year-olds stepped forwards and were Sorted.

"Fenn, Kyle!" A boy standing beside Hugo stepped forwards. He had curly black hair and grey eyes. He sat down and was still for only a second before -- "RAVENCLAW!"

I cheered with the rest of my house; Kyle was the first to be Sorted into Ravenclaw this year. He sat down across from his brother, Jordan Fenn, who was a year above me, and the Sorting continued. Soon enough, Flitwick was calling "Longbottom, Dylan!" and Professor Longbottom's son was stepping forwards. He had sandy-coloured hair, hazel eyes, and a slightly round face. He sat down, glanced at his father, who was sitting at the staff table, and put the hat on. The entire Hall was silent for a few moments.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Dylan, blushing, ran towards our table and sat down as Professor Flitwick called, "Manfield, Kendra!"

"SLYTHERIN!"

Kendra hopped off the stool and ran to the table of students clad in green and silver. She sat down across from Tanya Appel and Professor Flitwick continued on with the Sorting.

Finally, they reached one of the names I'd been waiting for. "Potter, Lily!" wheezed Flitwick, and she stepped forward, her long red hair shining in the candlelight, her green eyes alight with excitement.

"RAVENCLAW!"

I cheered loudly along with Rose and the rest of our table. Lily searched us out and squeezed in between us. Rose gave her a hug, and the Sorting went on.

After "Running, Robert" came "Scamander, Ava," Jayden's little sister. Ava was among the kids that Lily had been standing with. She looked like the exact image of her sister, except that Ava had dirty-blonde hair instead of brown.

"RAVENCLAW!"

Ava sat down across from Lily, Rose and I.

"Silver, Norah" became a Slytherin. "Truscott, Rhyley" was another Ravenclaw, and amongst the seemingly endless cheering from my table, I missed a few people.

"Weasley, Hugo!"

Hugo stepped forward and put the Hat on. He sat there for what seemed like an eternity before the Hat yelled, "HUFFLEPUFF!"

Rose, Lily and I cheered for her brother as he went and sat down at the Hufflepuff table, and the last person left standing stepped forward.

"Wood, Jonathan!"

Ayla's little brother had dark brown hair and green eyes. He was almost immediately sorted into Ravenclaw, and the Sorting finished.

As the Great Hall went quiet again, Professor McGonagall stood up and went through the usual speech about how the Forest is out of bounds, and how we have a new Ancient Runes teacher, Vincent Harrison. Then the mounds of food appeared on the four long tables. Lily and Ava gaped at it while everybody else in the Hall dug in. After about five minutes, Rose looked up from her spaghetti.

"Well, are you going to eat or not?" she said, and Lily and Ava finally began to eat.

When the feast had finished, Professor McGonagall stood up again and ordered the prefects ("Miss Mabel, Mr Abbott, Miss Reilly, Mr Jackson, Miss Travis, Mr Quentin, Miss Trunell, Mr Gates") to lead the first-years to their dormitories, and with the usual loud scraping of benches being pushed back, the Hall began to empty.

When we reached the common room, it was already almost full. We started to walk across towards the dormitory door, but our path was blocked. I looked up from my feet to see Danielle Usher.

"I wanted to tell you that I'm the one who deserves to be Seeker this year," she said menacingly, "so if you beat me again at tryouts -- which was a fluke, by the way -- you'd better watch out."

"Elle! Elle!" I looked around to see Jayden Scamander fighting her way towards me. She nodded briefly at Danielle, then turned to me. "Hi, Elle," said Jayden. "Um, I wanted to tell you that I'm Quidditch Captain, and also, I don't see any reason to hold tryouts for the entire team, because we got second last year." I glanced at Danielle; her face was turning red. "I'm only going to hold tryouts for a new Chaser, now that Ayla's gone, so I want you down at the pitch with the rest of the team next Friday after dinner, okay?"

"Uh, yeah," I said. "Congratulations. Sure. I'll be there."

Jayden grinned at me and bounced off towards Richard O'Conner. Danielle glared at me, whispered "You'd better watch out" again, and stalked off towards the dormitories.

Rose and I were stopped several more times as we went towards the dormitories, but we eventually made it. We stopped at the second landing.

"Rose!" squealed Lily, spotting her through the open door.

Rose and I poked our heads in. The five new Ravenclaws were in the middle of decorating their portions of the room. Lily had the bed closest to the door and was taping up some posters. Melissa Harrison was hanging up clothes in her closet, and Rhyley Truscott smiled at us as she carried a gigantic bag into the bathroom and began to load things onto one of the shelves. Allison Grey's trunk had been opened and rummaged through, then left where it was. Allison herself was lying on her stomach on her bed, reading. Ava was nowhere in sight.

"Where's Ava?" Rose asked Lily.

"She was tired," said Lily, pointing at the bed next to hers. The midnight-blue hangings were drawn shut.

"Okay, well, we've got to go and unpack our stuff now," said Rose, and we left.

"Hi," said Annie when we gave the password to the Chinese Fireball portrait beside the door. "How was your summer?" She was halfway through her usual back-to-school routine -- throwing everything she owned around the room.

"Confusing," I said truthfully. "You?"

"Boring," she said, sticking her tongue out. "Mum and Dad went to Paris and refused to take us with them, so Jake and Shannon and me had to stay with Grandfather, who refuses to be called Grandpa or Papa or anything half-normal like that. He's so..." She frowned, searching for the right word. "So... proper! I hate it!" She paused. "So you say yours was confusing? Do tell."

I sat down on my bed and launched into the story of my summer.

"So now you're staying with Harry Potter's family?" said Annie when I finished.

I nodded.

"Oh, Shannon's going to ask you for about a _million_ interviews," said Annie, grinning. "You just _wait._ If you want to survive, don't let her find out."

I rolled my eyes. "Yeah, right. Stop exaggerating, Annie."

"I'm not," said Annie seriously, taping a poster to the wall beside her bed. "If you'd seen the posters she has..." She shuddered. "Most of them are Harry Potter, but a few are his wife and friends and even Draco Malfoy."

"Scorp's dad?" I asked, and Annie nodded. "Is he nice?"

Rose joined the conversation. "Supposedly, but don't mention it around my dad. He _hates_ Draco Malfoy."

"Yeah, I heard him at the train station, first year," I grinned. "Did you know that James' family's the only reason I'm actually here? I wouldn't have known how to get to Platform 9 3/4 in first year if I hadn't overheard Lily whining about how she wanted to go to Hogwarts, too."

"I was _not_ whining!" said Lily, coming into the room.

"You were most definitely whining, Lils," I assured her.

"Was not!"

I playfully stuck my tongue out at her and finished putting away my clothes.

Lily lost interest in me and turned to Rose. "Rosie, do you have my favourite jeans?"

"Why would _I_ have your favourite jeans? _I_ don't live with you," Rose pointed out.

Lily nodded, went over to my closet, and began pulling things out of it, unfolding them and throwing them across the room in search of her jeans.

"Hey!" I said indignantly. "Stop it! Can't you look in my closet _without_ throwing everything I own all over the room?"

Lily glared at me. "Where'd you put my jeans?" she asked accusingly.

"I don't have them, I promise you," I said. "You probably left them at home. You should write to your mum. Maybe she'll send them to you."

"But they're my _favourite_ jeans," Lily insisted.

I sighed. "That doesn't change the fact tha they're probably back at Grimmauld Place.. When was the last time you saw them?"

"Three days ago, when I gave them to Kreacher to put them in the laundry, so they would be clean for -- oh," said Lily, her eyes widening. "I probably left them at home!"

"Like I --"

"I'm going to go write to Mum. Maybe she'll send them to me!" And with that, she was out the door.

"-- said," I finished pointlessly.

***

_**Author's Note: **__Sorry it's been so long, and that this chapter was kinda uneventful. :P I've been busy -- back-to-school shopping and so on. Anyways, I'll start working on Chapter 25 soon!_


	25. Secrets

Chapter Twenty-Five

The next day, classes began, and I had my electives thrown into my now-hectic schedule. Instead of having the same classes in the same order every day, the third-years and up now had each class two or three times a week, with different classes each day.

It was a Monday, so my first class of the day was Potions. The hour-long class was spent taking a review quiz of the material we had learned over the last two years. Then we moved onto Charms, where Professor Flitwick gave us a long sheet of parchment and told us to fill out all the questions on it. It turned out to be another review test. Then came my first elective: Muggle Studies.

Professor Isaacs, a twenty-something woman with long, straight, dark red hair and big grey eyes, started the class by telling everybody to get out some parchment and write down everything that we knew about Muggles. My list, without a doubt, was the longest; none of the other students seemed to be Muggleborn, although some of the students with slightly longer lists than the average were related to a Muggleborn, like Rose, whose mother was Muggleborn. Then she handed out a piece of parchment with a course outline on it, told us what we would learn, collected our point-form notes on Muggles, and dismissed us.

"Muggle Studies is going to be interesting," predicted Rose at lunch. "I think Professor Isaacs is Muggleborn, like you, Elle, so she'll know what she's teaching us, she won't just be telling us to read a textbook."

"Why am I even _taking_ Muggle Studies?" I asked, grabbing a handful of carrot sticks out of a bowl in front of me. I spooned some dip onto my plate. "I know practically everything there is to know about how Muggles live. I _am_ a Muggle."

"It will look good on job applications, and it'll raise your grade point average," Rose insisted, pouring herself some pumpkin juice. "Plus, you can help me and Carla and Annie."

"But I could help you even if I wasn't taking the class," I protested, ignoring her first two arguments. "You'd just have to ask me and I'd give you the answer."

Professor McGonagall gave us another review test as we walked into Transfiguration. Then we went to Divination.

The classroom was on the first floor. Rose said that when her parents had gone here, a Ministry of Magic woman named Professor Umbridge had come and started making all kinds of rules, and fired Professor Trelawney, the Divination teacher. Professor Dumbledore, the Headmaster, had allowed Trelawney to stay at Hogwarts, and found a new Divination teacher before Umbridge had had the chance to appoint somebody else from the Ministry of Magic. The next year, with Umbridge and her rules gone, Professor Trelawney had resumed teaching alongside the new teacher; Trelawney got third-years, fifth-years and seventh-years, and the other teacher got fourth-years and sixth-years. Professor Trelawney had retired years and years ago -- still living at Hogwarts, though -- but the other teacher was still there, and he now taught all the students that took Divination. This teacher was Professor Firenze.

When we reached the classroom, I was startled to see that Professor Firenze was a centaur. Half man, half horse. He had long, silver-blond hair and beard, as well as a silvery tail. The classroom had been transformed into some kind of forest clearing. We walked through a thin line of trees to reach the center of the classroom, which resembled a grassy clearing. The sun shone down from the obviously enchanted ceiling. There were no desks; the students were all sitting on the grassy floor.

Professor Firenze raised his hand, then lowered it. As he did so, the sun seemed to dip behind the treetops, and the moon began to rise, and suddenly it seemed to be twilight. Stars began to wink at us from the darkening sky. He motioned for us to lie back on the soft grass, and then he began to speak in a calm, low voice.

"Welcome to Divination. I know you have learned of the planets and their moons in Astronomy, and that you have mapped the stars' progress through the heavens." He paused. "Centaurs have unraveled the mysteries of these movements over the centuries. Our findings tell us that the future may be glimpsed in the sky above us," he recited, and I got the feeling that he made this speech to his third-year class every single year. "We watch the skies for the great tides of evil and change that are marked there. Sometimes it takes ten years to be sure of what we are seeing..."

After observing the stars for a while, we burned sage and mallowsweet. Firenze told us to look for shapes and symbols in the fumes, describing exactly what the symbols looked like. When nobody could find them, he assured us that "humans are hardly ever good at this, and it takes several years even for centaurs to be able to do it properly." He finished off the class by telling us that it was foolish to put any faith in this type of thing, because even centaurs sometimes read them wrong. It was the strangest class I had ever attended.

Our last class of the day was Defense Against the Dark Arts. Professor Adams began the class by arranging our desks in a circle, as she did every year. This year, Ravenclaw and Slytherin third-years had DADA together. We went around the circle, telling about our summers. When Annie had said, very quickly, that she had turned thirteen, and turned to me expectantly, I just said that I stayed with a friend for summer, and Carla started in on her annual family reunion, which included anybody remotely related to anybody in her family. The reunions seemed to be very large, held in packed houses. The guests seemed to consist of the following: her stepmother's first two husbands, all the children from both marriages and from Carla's father's marriage, Carla's father's parents, and Carla's stepmother's mother, as well as all the children's husbands, wives, boyfriends, girlfriends and, in some cases, children. Carla's reunion story ended up taking about twenty minutes to relay, which cut out any actual learning that we could have done that class. Professor Adams claimed that it was okay because she hadn't actually _planned_ a lesson, and because Carla's story was more entertaining than anything else she _could_ have planned. She promised to have something planned for our class the next morning and dismissed us five minutes early so that we could get downstairs for dinner before the corridors became too crowded.

After dinner, we returned to the common room, claimed our usual midnight-blue armchairs near the fireplace, and sat there for almost three hours before retreating to our dormitory and getting ready for bed.

The next day, the only electives I had were Ancient Runes and Care of Magical Creatures. Ancient Runes was right after breakfast; Rose and I parted ways with Carla and Annie at the foot of the marble staircase and excitedly headed off to the fourth floor for Professor Harrison's class.

Vincent Harrison was an older man, probably between sixty and seventy, the type that wouldn't reveal their age if their life depended on it. He had mouse-brown hair slowly being drowned out by wispy little grey strands, and round glasses similar to James, Al and Lily's father. His hands shook as he passed out the old textbooks. I handled mine carefully, afraid that the cracked spine would snap in two at a single touch. Professor Harrison tapped the blackboard with his wand and words began to appear on it, as though being written by invisible chalk.

_Introduction to Ancient Runes._ A completely straight line was drawn underneath these words, and the invisible chalk continued.

"Copy this into your notes, copy this into your notes!" squealed Professor Harrison when he noticed that nobody had their parchment and quills out. There was a scramble of movement as everybody pulled their things out and began to write hurriedly.

When Rose and I reached Defense Against the Dark Arts, Rose and Annie were already there. We sat down in our usual seats from the past two years; Annie and Carla next to each other, and Rose and I together in front of them. Professor Adams sat at her desk at the front of the room, shuffling papers around, a slight frown on her face as she scanned page upon page of parchment filled with writing, until everybody had arrived. Then she put a large stack of parchment to the side and pushed her chair back, standing up and clapping once to get our attention.

"Today we're going on a little... a little _field trip,_" she explained excitedly. "The only things you need to bring with you are your wand and a will to learn."

"Where are we going?" asked a Slytherin boy excitedly.

"Not out of the castle," Professor Adams assured him.

Many excited students' faces fell. Their shoulders slumped and they unwillingly trudged along behind Professor Adams as she led us down the second-floor corridor. She stopped in front of a large tapestry of an ugly grey troll holding a heavy-looking club over a group of wizards playing Exploding Snap. Professor Adams began to speak in a low, quick voice. The words didn't sound English. As she spoke, the bottom of the tapestry slowly began to roll itself upwards until a big, dark tunnel appeared beyond it. Several students looked around in awe as she led us into it, but there wasn't much to see, even when a few of them lit their wands. The walls were cold, grey stone, along with the ceiling and floor. Our footsteps echoed dimly throughout the tunnel as we progressed.

After a few minutes, Professor Adams called back to us that we were approaching stairs. Everybody who hadn't lit their wands immediately did so, flooding the passageway with light. The stairs we came to were steep stone and went on for what seemed like forever. My muscles ached by the time we came out into a corridor lit by lanterns in brackets on the walls. This corridor was much wider than the passageway, with a dark green carpet running down the middle of it and wooden doors on both sides. Professor Adams put a finger to her lips, whispered that there were NEWT classes in session on this floor -- the seventh -- and ordered us to be quiet. She led us on tiptoe down the corridor. Finally we reached a door at the dead end of the corridor. Professor Adams opened the door silently and ushered us in.

We appeared to be in some kind of closet. Looking around, I saw all of the regular Muggle cleaning supplies -- a few buckets, two mops, a broom (clearly not the flying kind), a shelf of rags in the corner. Professor Adams told us to stand around the edges. She took one corner of the dirty rug and lifted it up, revealing the floor underneath. A spider scuttled away in fright.

The floor -- which I had suspected would be stone -- had a big wooden plank right in the middle of it, with a metal ring of a handle. Professor Adams curled her fingers around the metal ring and gave a mighty pull, and up came the wood to reveal a long drop to a small point of light at the very bottom. This tunnel was vertical, like a Muggle elevator shaft, but only wide enough for one person to fit. There was a metal ladder on one wall, leading all the way down, several floors it must have gone.

"Tanya Appel," said Professor Adams suddenly, beckoning to the strawberry-blonde Slytherin girl. Tanya looked up, startled, as Professor Adams pointed down the hole.

Somebody snickered in the corner. Tanya wasn't half-bad, for a Slytherin; a lot of Slytherins seemed to dislike her for that reason. She wasn't... _slippery_ enough for them. Too nice, too smart. Her friends weren't restricted to other Slytherins -- in fact, she didn't seem to have _any_ friends in Slytherin. She had a couple of friends in Hufflepuff, one in Ravenclaw, from the year above us, and a few from Gryffindor.

Tanya started forwards, tripping over a crack in the stone on the way. She started down the ladder.

"Jordan Webber," said Professor Adams. Jordan, a Ravenclaw, began down the ladder after Tanya. One by one, Professor Adams called forward all of the students.

At the bottom, we appeared to be back on the second floor. I wondered briefly what the point of this long, roundabout trip was, but decided that Professor Adams was trying to make the "field trip" more interesting.

The next place she took us was a bathroom.

A _bathroom._

Several of the boys paused uncertainly outside the door. There was a sign over the door.

_Girls._

A _girls _bathroom.

"It's all right," called Professor Adams. "It's out of order."

A crying ghost came through the closed door of a cubicle as we entered. Professor Adams said, "Sshhh, Myrtle. Don't say a word to any of them. It's a surprise."

The ghost nodded, hiccuped, let out a choked sob, and returned to her cubicle.

Professor Adams marched right up to a sink and whispered something under her breath. It sounded suspiciously inhuman.

The sink began to move. It dropped down and created a doorway in the circular array of sinks, opening up a huge tunnel behind the wall of cracked mirrors. And Professor Adams began to send people down it.

We arrived at the bottom of the slide-like tunnel to find a wide corridor filled with an eerie green glow and several small bones all over the floor. Ahead was a place where the roof had caved in, some of the stones cleared away so that we could continue along the tunnel. The little bones -- rats, mice, other rodents, I thought -- crunched beneath our feet as we went. I tried not to think about the poor animals as I followed Professor Adams with the rest of the class. Eventually we reached a rusted, metal door. Snakes were carved into the metal, twining together, moving, hissing softly, like the paintings on the walls of the castle above us. We must be somewhere under the lake by now! Professor Adams said more things in that creepy language that she had used on the sink, and the snakes slithered along the door faster. There were several loud clicks and the door swung open with a slight creak, not so loud that it hurt the ears, but loud enough to notice that the door was old. Very old. Professor Adams led us through the doorway and I heard our footsteps echoing loudly, along with a steady drip, drip, drip of water. We were in someplace _big. _The eerie green light still lit up enough for me to see the silhouettes of the people around me, but I couldn't see where we were. I saw Professor Adams' wand flick, just a little bit, and then the light brightened so that we could see around us.

"Welcome," said Professor Adams, "to the Chamber of Secrets."

***

**_Author's Note: _**_Wow, I can't believe this field trip! I was going to have Professor Adams take them to the staff room for a round with a Boggart, and look how it's turned out! Sometimes this story just has a life of its own. It doesn't seem to want me to do what **I **want to do! Now, I have a couple (well, three) things to say: (1) I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry! I've been working on my new Twilight fanfic, **Paisley **(for those of you who love Twilight like I do and have read Breaking Dawn, go read it!) and I had this chapter written up, but I was swamped with homework and dance classes and musical theatre at school (make that four things I have to tell you, I have my **BIIIG** news at the end!) so I was too lazy to type it up, which leads me into the next thing I have to say. (2) A HUGE thanks to **Strawberry Potter **for giving me that giant kick in the butt I needed to get this chapter up! And (3), thanks to my lovely reviewers for last chapter, HPobsessssssed7 and wishfulthinking123, and Strawberry Potter again, even though your review was technically a PM. But it still counts! Also, thanks to HPobsessssssed7 again for reviewing my new story, Paisley. And now, the fourth and final thing, my **BIIIG **news! (4) Last year at school I was a "niner" (haha) and I was in Stagecraft, which makes all the sets for the plays. My school does three plays a year: one by a year-long drama class in November/December, one by the other year-long drama class in February (drama nerd = the new IN) and the musical theatre production in May. This year, my friend (who was an orphan in "Annie" for musical theatre last year) forced me to quit Stagecraft and join Musical Theatre. And so far, I'm LOVING IT! We're doing "Cabaret" -- the teachers for musical theatre (Mr Plant, Ms G and Mr K) switch it up every year; one year it's a kiddie play, the next year more mature, the next year kids again. But the best part of my news is: **I GOT A PART!!! **I am a Kit-Kat Girl (or, as my brother says, a Chocolate Stripper)!!! Anyways, I have to go now. I'll try to get the next chapter done before homework/dance takes over my life again. :P_


	26. Treasure

Chapter Twenty-Six

"The Chamber of Secrets," whispered the whole class, and then everyone started to talk at once. Professor Adams waited until we started to quiet down and then she began to speak.

"We're here to learn about exactly _what_ happened in Harry Potter's second year when he came down here and killed the Basilisk," she explained. "I had to get special permission from the Headmistress to bring you here, so you have to behave, or you'll never get to do anything fun again. Just notes. Like in History of Magic. Boring." She pressed a finger to her lips. "Don't tell Professor Binns I said that." She began to show us around. She led us right up to the base of the giant statue where the Basilisk had come out of so many years ago. She showed us the place where he had found an unconscious, eleven-year-old Ginny. We saw the site of the destruction of Tom Riddle's diary, and we spent the rest of class there until Professor Adams announced that we had to go back up to the main part of the school for our next classes, and magically transported us back into the bathroom we had entered from.

"There's still a few minutes left of class," she said. "Ravenclaws, if you hurry, you might be able to get to your dormitory and change. Slytherins, I'm afraid you're out of luck, what with the location of your common room." Then she swept out of the bathroom. Everyone filed after her, covered in slime from the slippery slide down into the Chamber of Secrets. Rose, Carla, Annie and I sprinted for the common room, but even so, we arrived at Herbology late. Professor Longbottom gave us a stern _don't let it happen again or you'll get detention_ speech, but ruined it by bursting into laughter partway through it, because the rest of the class was making funny faces. He kept us after class to finish his lecture about being late, and when we arrived at the Great Hall for lunch, we had to split up so that we could sit down. Rose and I managed to find space for us to sit across from each other, but Carla ended up in between a couple of seventh-years who used the empty seat between them as elbow space, so she got elbows in her face while she was eating, and Annie couldn't find anywhere to sit at all, and ate at the Hufflepuff table.

With less time to eat than usual, we took a couple of sandwiches each with us when we left the Great Hall, and ate them on the way down to Hagrid's hut for Care of Magical Creatures. Hagrid greeted us eagerly, obviously ecstatic that we were taking his class.

Hagrid started the first lesson by announcing that we were going to learn all about different magical creatures. He listed off a few -- Thestrals, Hippogriffs, Blast-Ended Skrewts.

"But Mum says those are really dangerous," objected Rose.

Hagrid snorted. "Only dangerous if yeh don' know how teh handle 'em," he said. "Don' yeh worry yer little head abou' it, Rosie. The lot o' yeh will be fine. Besides, yer mum sen' me a whole new lesson plan the secon' she foun' out yeh were signed up fer my class. I edited a little, but it's mos'ly the same stuff." The rest of the class was spent learning about a relatively non-dangerous creature called a Niffler.

"Nifflers like shiny things," explained Hagrid. "If yeh got a shiny watch, or a necklace, or somethin' --"

But he was cut off as one of the furry creatures leapt from the box onto Suzy Polkins' leg and scrambled up to snap at her necklace, a little, shiny locket. Suzy screamed loudly, "Get it off, get it off of me!"

"Calm down!" shouted Hagrid anxiously. "Don' worry, Miss -- er --"

A Hufflepuff boy helped Suzy get the Niffler off, holding it with two hands around its little, furry middle and dropping it back into the box.

"Now," said Hagrid uncertainly, "I've got a little hunt planned ou'... Hermione said it'd be good, bu' it's really my idea, if yeh think 'bout it. I mean, I had it in 'er fifth year, she jus' took it from one o' my ol' lessons --" He paused. "Anyway, I buried some shiny stuff in the groun' an' yer all gonna be in pairs -- find a par'ner, ev'ryone --" He seemed pretty unsure about the lesson plan as he waited for us to pick partners, tapping his big foot nervously on the ground. "Now ev'ryone's gonna ge' a Niffler," he explained, "an' set 'em loose in th' pumpkin patch."

"Set them _loose?_" said Suzy in a high voice. "Are you _mad?_"

"They'll be goin' after the shiny stuff in th' groun'," promised Hagrid. "When there's nothin' left in the pumpkin patch, whoever has the mos' treasures wins."

"Right," said Rose. "You go pick our Niffler... I'm not going anywhere near that box."

I smiled. "They don't seem _that_ dangerous. They just like shiny stuff."

"Pick a really good one!" she cried as I walked towards Hagrid and his box of treasure-hunting Nifflers. "I want to win that prize!"

_Unless it's one of Hagrid's rock cakes,_ I thought. I looked into the box. Most of the crowd of students eager to win the competition had already picked their Nifflers and taken them to the pumpkin patch, where they were excitedly cheering on their Nifflers. There were six Nifflers left. My eyes locked on a particular Niffler pacing around the box like the tiger at the zoo. I picked him up by the scruff of his neck, like a mother cat carried a kitten, and carried him back to Rose. The Niffler didn't try to scratch me; he seemed to understand that I was taking him to the treasure.

Rose had removed her small star-shaped stud earrings and put them in her pocket. She had an anxious look on her face. "All right, set him loose," she said, placing her hand protectively in front of the pocket where her precious earrings now resided. I put the Niffler down and he immediately shot off to a nearby corner of the pumpkin patch and started to burrow furiously.

Rose and I stood there in silence while everyone around us yelled and screamed. We waited patiently as the Niffler burrowed deeper and deeper into the soil. Soon he came back up and deposited the treasure at our feet and returned to his hole. Dirt flew out behind him as he dug further down. I stooped and picked up the treasure. Turning it over in my hands, I realized that it was the cheap kind of chocolate wrapped in a shiny gold wrapper to make it look like a coin. I sighed. Some treasure _this_ was. But hopefully, the real treasure would be the prize. Not that the prize was the only thing that mattered to me. This was fun even without the prospect of a prize. Our Niffler dropped another chocolate coin at our feet and shot off into another section of the pumpkin patch. He returned again and again, dropping off a chocolate coin each time. Finally, every Niffler stopped, spun on its four little heels and raced back to its pair of students, sitting happily beside the pile of treasure that it had collected. Hagrid went around from pair to pair, counting the treasure while murmuring soothingly to the Nifflers so that they wouldn't attack him for touching their treasure. Finally he straightened up and announced the winners.

"Yeh two --" he said, pointing at Rose and I "-- yeh two are tied wi' Carla an' Annie here." He handed Annie the prize. "The four o' yeh will have teh share. Now, off teh yer next class, the lot o' yeh!"

The four of us started up the front lawn towards the castle.

"So, what's the prize?" asked Rose eagerly.

Annie waved the wrapped box teasingly. "Not telling!"

"There's a label, Annie," Carla said. "She'll read it sooner or later."

"Fine," sighed Annie. "It's chocolate. Honeydukes." She grinned the widest grin imaginable.

"Give me some!" said Rose excitedly.

"Nope," smiled Annie. "We're saving it. For after dinner."

Rose grumbled the rest of the way to our next class, History of Magic. This class proved to bring more notes, similar to every other History of Magic class we'd had in the past two years.

Our last class of the day was Charms. Professor Flitwick stood atop his desk and announced today's lesson: the Patronus Charm.

"The incantation is _Expecto Patronum,_" he squeaked. "Say it with me, class!"

"_Expecto Patronum,_" recited the class.

"Good, good!" Professor Flitwick said, clapping his hands together. "Now, think of a happy memory and try the spell! If it's not happy enough, it won't work!"

After a few minutes of practice, he gathered us all together again and went along the rows of desks, asking each person to show him their best Patronus. The first few students produced only silver vapor. Shane Powell, from Gryffindor, was the first to get a more solid-looking Patronus, not the full Patronus like Professor Flitwick had shown us at the beginning of class. I couldn't tell what animal Shane's Patronus was, but it was definitely more than the mist everyone else was getting. Rose, of course, got the spell straight away. Her shimmering eagle swept around the room for a full two minutes before it disappeared into thin air. Then it was my turn. I turned my mind to this summer, just after I'd arrived at the Potters' house. Days full of Quidditch and friends.

"_Expecto Patronum!_" But all that my wand came up with was a poof of silver mist that settled on the desk in front of me before evaporating completely.

Professor Flitwick smiled kindly at me. "Don't worry, it will come eventually!" he said. "Miss Wilde?" He turned to Carla.

"Well," said Annie on the way down to dinner, "at least it's better than the boxing glove in first year, remember?"

"I suppose," I said sadly.

"Come off it, Elle," said Carla cheerfully a few minutes later, spooning a large amount of mashed potatoes onto her plate. "I didn't get it, either. In fact, Rose's the only one who got the spell right."

Rose blushed a shade of red that matched her hair. "Mine wasn't _that_ good," she said modestly.

"Rose," said Annie exasperatedly, "yours had shape. It wasn't mist. It was an animal. You could tell what it was. It was good. It was outstanding, really. You can't deny it."

"Yes, I can," said Rose defiantly.

Annie sighed. "I'm warning you now, Rose, if you say it one more time, I will not give you any chocolate!"

***

_**Author's Note: **__Today was pyjama day at school! One teacher wore bright red pyjamas that are those one-piece ones, with a butt flap so he could go to the bathroom and stuff. And my dance teacher was yelling at the principal because he didn't wear his PJ's and I took my teddy bear to school... ;) It was awesome!!! Also, thanks to HPobsessssssed7 for reviewing! And I have a question for you guys, my loverly readers -- how long should this story be? When I started it, I was thinking it would run through all seven years that Elle's at Hogwarts, but now I'm unsure, as most regular books aren't that long. What do I do? Should I split it into two or three stories? Tell me what you think!  
_


	27. Permission

Chapter Twenty-Seven

A few days later, the usual sign was posted on the notice board in the common room.

_The first Hogsmeade trip__  
will be on the thirty-first  
of October._

How could I have forgotten? This was the year that I would finally be allowed to go to Hogsmeade. James had told me all about Hogsmeade over the summer -- the shops, the Shrieking Shack, the Three Broomsticks. He had brought us candy from the sweet shop, Honeydukes, when he had gone last year.

Wait.

Had I even gotten a permission form for Hogsmeade? It was sent to parents or guardians by owl. But since my guardian was Grandma, and she was a Muggle, would it have come to her through the Muggle post? Wouldn't she have signed it straight away and given it to me to bring back to Hogwarts with me? She had never mentioned any Hogsmeade form, which meant that she probably hadn't gotten one. But then, who had? Harry and Ginny? They weren't technically my guardians, but perhaps they still counted. But they, too, would have given it to me once they signed it. And it would have come with Al's form, which I knew it hadn't. I had been there when the owl flew down the chimney and into the basement kitchen of number 12, Grimmauld Place, and the owl had only one Hogsmeade form in its beak. So where had my form gone? The only other possibility was Granddad and Nana.

Granddad and Nana, who would probably tie the slip of parchment to a stake and burn it, wishing that I would magically appear in the letter's place. A punishment fit for a witch...

So the letter had to have gone to Granddad and Nana. And they had burned it, or ripped it up into shreds, or put it on the desk with all the letters that they never answered, where it would gather dust for the next year and a half until Nana decided to clean up a little. And I would not be able to go to Hogsmeade.

On the way down to the Great Hall for breakfast, my friends were all chattering excitedly about the Hogsmeade trip next month.

"I can't wait!" said Carla. "We'll all walk down together, and we can go to all the shops, and the Three Broomsticks --"

"The Hog's Head," interjected Annie. "It's some kind of historical landmark from when Harry Potter was younger. At the Great Battle of Hogwarts, you know? The barman there was Aberforth Dumbledore. The younger brother of the Dumbledore that was Headmaster here. And there was a secret passageway into the Room of Requirement."

"Yeah, we should go to the Hog's Head!" said Rose excitedly.

"Or both," added Carla. "What do you think, Elle?"

All three of them were looking at me. I tried to think of what to say. "Er... I suppose you guys should decide. After all, you're the ones who will _be_ there."

"What do you mean?" cried Rose. "You're coming, aren't you?"

I shook my head sadly. "I think my form was sent to Granddad and Nana in the Muggle post, and they probably burned it or something."

"Well, you can't stay _here,_" said Annie, determined. "The first Hogsmeade trip is on your birthday! If you don't go, you'll have the most boring birthday _ever!_"

"And that's not allowed," Carla said, picking up where Annie left off. "You'll just have to get another form and send it to your grandma, and she can sign it and send it back. Then you can come with us."

"But I don't know if Grandma's even my guardian, technically. I mean, I've been living at James' house. So would Harry and Ginny be my guardians now?"

"You'll have to ask Professor Flitwick," said Rose firmly. "We've got Charms after lunch, you can ask him then."

And so, after lunch, I sat in the Charms classroom between Carla and Rose, whispering over the noise of the entire class practicing the highly advanced Silencing Charm that Flitwick was having us attempt.

"But if Mum and Dad were your guardians," said Al, for we had Charms with the Gryffindors, "then your letter would've come with mine."

"But they sent the letter to Granddad and Nana, I'm sure of it," I told him.

"Well, then _they_ are your guardians."

"_At the time,_" I explained. "Who knows who my guardian is now? It could be Grandma, it could be your parents, it could still be Granddad and Nana. Which would be terrible, because then I would _never_ get to go to Hogsmeade."

After Charms, I waited until the class cleared out of the room and I was the only one left. I approached Professor Flitwick's desk nervously. What was there to be nervous about? I was only going to ask who my guardians would be. There was no way to tell beforehand if he would even know the answer, anyways. If he didn't know the answer, what would I do then? Maybe I should just leave before he noticed me. But as I turned to go, Professor Flitwick looked up from his paperwork and smiled at me.

"Is everything all right, Miss Taylor?" he squeaked.

I hesitated. "I -- I have a question," I began. Professor Flitwick smiled encouragingly, and I continued. "The Hogsmeade trip on Halloween -- I never got a permission form, you see, and I think it must have been sent to my Granddad and Nana..."

"You should write to them," suggested Professor Flitwick, "and they will send it to you."

"But they won't," I tried to explain. "They only just found out at the beginning of the summer that I'm a witch, and they're not too fond of witches or magic or anything of the sort. I think they've probably burned the letter or something -- I was wondering whether I could have a new one, you know, to send to my guardian -- or guardians..."

"I will send a new form to your guardian," said Professor Flitwick. "And your guardian would be...?"

"The thing is," I started, "I'm not really sure. I mean, I would say my Grandma, but all summer I've been living at the Potters', and so would they be my guardians?"

"I would hazard a guess at your grandmother," smiled Professor Flitwick. "I will send a permission form to her."

I smiled in relief. "Thank you, Professor Flitwick!"

"You're welcome. And now, Miss Taylor, I think you had better scurry along; you don't want to be late for your next class."

***

I sat down in front of my cauldron in the dungeons just as the bell rang to signal the beginning of class. Professor Slughorn told us to begin working on the Polyjuice Potion, our first project of the year. The Polyjuice Potion would take between two and three months to brew properly, and luckily, Professor Slughorn had already gathered most of the ingredients that were harder to obtain -- for example, the 12 lacewing flies that had been stewed for 21 days, and the 16 scruples of fluxweed that was picked at full moon, alongside the filings and rasplings of Salpeter, Mercury and Mars, and the pinch of powdered Bicorn horn that has been "lunar extracted." Professor Slughorn said that meant you had to collect it at a certain period in the lunar calendar.

"However," he said, holding up a finger when everybody shared excited glances at not having to do very much to gather ingredients, "you will still need to remove the suckers of all four leeches." There was a collective groan throughout the class. "And you will also need to collect some of your hair. As you will be working in partners, you will be turning into each other for your final mark." Professor Slughorn gave an excited clap. "Pick your partners and get on with it!"

"Dibs on Rose," said Carla and Annie at the exact same time.

Rose sighed. "It's great to know that you guys want me to be your partner and all, but I'd rather not pick between the two of you."

Carla and Annie looked at each other. "Arm wrestling?" asked Carla brightly.

I cut in between them. "Don't," I said firmly. "If we're going to do this properly, it has to be something completely fair."

"It _is_ fair," protested Carla.

I raised an eyebrow at her. "No, it's not. You have Quidditch on your side." I thought for a minute. "Pick a number between one and ten."

Annie and Carla looked at me, confused. "Why?"

"It's a Muggle thing," I explained. "I'm thinking of a number. Each of you will guess a number, and whoever is closer to the number I'm thinking of gets to partner up with Rose."

"Six," said Annie.

"Eight," said Carla.

I sighed. "Of course, my number is seven," I muttered. "Okay, try it again."

"Two," said Annie.

"Five," said Carla.

"My number was nine," I told them. "Carla and Rose, get to work. Annie, come over here."

Annie and I looked over the list of ingredients in the textbook. Then we went to the supply cupboard in the corner and took the ingredients back to our table, putting them beside Annie's cauldron and looking over the list.

Twelve lacewing flies that had been stewed for 21 days, check. One ounce of crude Antimony, check. Four leeches, still with their suckers attached, check. Sixteen scruples of fluxweed, picked at full moon, check. Three drachms of pulverized Sal Ammoniac, check. Pulverized knotgrass blades, check. Powdered Bicorn horn, check. Blocks of Salpeter, Mercury and Mars, which Professor Slughorn said meant iron, check. One of the things on our to-do list was to take filings of these. Shredded, dried Boomslang skin, check. And our hair, which we would save for after everything was ready.

Wrinkling our noses, Annie and I got to work on removing the suckers from our dead leeches.

"So," muttered Annie, "how'd it go with Flitwick?"

I put my first leech aside and took another one from the tray. "Good, I think. He said that he'd send another form to Grandma."

"Well, I hope she signs it and gets it back to him in time for the trip."

"Annie," I said, "the trip is in more than a month."

"Still," she mumbled.

After we finished "unsucculating" our leeches, we moved on to the filings of Salpeter, Mercury and iron. We each took a file and started filing away until Professor Slughorn told us that we had enough. Then we shredded the dried Boomslang skin and started to measure and pour into the cauldron. By the end of class, all we would have to do to our Polyjuice Potion for the next two or three months would be to stir it periodically. However, the three months ahead of us would not be filled with class upon class of stirring and chatting and stirring and chatting some more, but with essays and other, less challenging potions that took less time to brew, and that we could brew in my cauldron as opposed to Annie's full cauldron. When we left, Annie's cauldron was thick and brown and bubbling slowly over the fire.

***

_**Author's Note: **__So that's another chapter done! Thanks to HPobsessssssed7 and wishfulthinking123 for reviewing, and also thank you to anybody that's added this story to their favourites or story alert! And I still have that question for you guys -- how long should this story be? When I started it, I had the idea in my head that it'd run all through Elle's seven years at Hogwarts, but now I'm uncertain... Should I split it up into two or three, or just have one that's reeaaallllyyyyy long? What do you think?_


	28. Chaser

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Two days later, an owl swooped into the Great Hall with the rest of the mail owls and dropped a brown envelope straight into my plate of eggs and bacon. I carefully removed the envelope from my plate and opened it.

"Yes! It's my permission form!"

Rose looked up from her copy of the _Daily Prophet._ "Oh, good," she said in relief. "Now you can come to Hogsmeade with us!"

Carla's head shot up from her textbook; she'd forgotten about the History of Magic test that we had in second period. "Really?"

"Study," Rose said firmly, pointing at the textbook.

"But it's _boring,_" protested Carla, glaring at the book.

"Here, I'll quiz you," said Annie, reaching across the table and grabbing the book. She almost dropped it in the pitcher of pumpkin juice and then _did_ drop it in her cereal and milk. She pulled the dripping book out.

"Oh, for heaven's sake," muttered Rose, pulling out her wand and quickly drying the book. Annie looked at her gratefully and started to quiz Carla.

I smiled. "Now I just have to get this back to Professor Flitwick," I said happily, glancing up at the staff table. "I'll wait until Charms."

"We don't have Charms today," Rose pointed out.

"Well, I'll take it to him after dinner," I decided, tucking the envelope into an outer pocket on my book bag.

The day passed quickly. After dinner, I dragged Rose with me up to the Charms classroom and knocked on Professor Flitwick's office door. We returned to Ravenclaw Tower shortly after and sat down at the round table that we usually did our homework at. Carla and Annie were already there, quills and ink ready and parchment stretched out in front of them for the Muggle Studies essay that Professor Isaacs had assigned to us. I set up my parchment and ink and sharpened a quill. I wrote for a moment and then looked up to see Rose, Carla and Annie all staring at me expectantly.

"What?"

"Help?" said Carla hopefully.

I sighed. "I'm not doing your work for you," I announced. "You can write it yourself. Just because I _am_ a Muggle doesn't mean that you can't learn about them by yourselves."

"Oh, great!" moaned Annie. "I don't even know what it's _on!_"

"It's a comparison of Muggle television and wizard newspapers," I told her, turning back to my work. For the next hour or so, the only sounds to be heard around our table were the scratching of quills on parchment. I waved my wand over my parchment to dry the ink and rolled up the parchment, stowing it in my bag and stretching.

"Well," I said, breaking the silence of our table, "I'm going to bed."

"Right," Carla said. "Maybe I should turn in, too. Who cares about the stupid essay? We have all weekend to do it, anyways."

"Exactly!" said Annie, jumping on the chance to skip homework for once. "Let's leave our homework for a while."

"You know, Annie, if you don't like homework, maybe you should get it over with so that you can have the rest of the weekend off," I suggested.

Annie shrugged. "Whatever." She followed Carla and I down to the dormitory. Carla and I got ready for bed while Annie chattered endlessly. It took us several minutes to shut her up so that we could sleep.

The next morning I woke practically with the sun. I lay in bed for a few minutes, thinking. I wondered who would be the new Chaser on the Quidditch team. Jayden had been sick the day she'd originally planned to do the tryouts for the new Chaser, so they'd been rescheduled for tomorrow after lunch; it was a Saturday. And the next day, Sunday, would be my first Hogsmeade trip.

There was a loud crash and I rip my hangings open to see Carla with a glass of water in one hand and a horrified expression on her face. Around her on the floor were hundreds of little tiny shards of glass. Water was beginning to soak into the midnight blue carpet.

"It's not time to wake up yet!" groaned Annie from behind her hangings.

Rose, always the one who had to clean up Annie's messes, grabbed her wand off her bedside table and muttered, "_Reparo._" The glass flew back together into the water pitcher, now empty. Carla blushed and picked up the pitcher, carrying it carefully into the bathroom to fill it up again.

"What's going on?" yelled Kaylee angrily, storming out from her curtained-off sleeping area. "Here I am, trying to sleep in -- it's a Saturday, after all -- and I'm woken up!"

"Well, I'm sorry that your sudden snoring startled me and caused me to drop the water pitcher, Kaylee," said Carla seriously, returning from the bathroom and setting the pitcher on the table by the window.

Kaylee's face turned red and she stormed into the bathroom, shutting and locking the door behind her.

"I have to take a shower, you know! There's more than one shower and more than one toilet," shouted Rose, pointing her wand at the lock. "_Alohomora!_" There was a click and she entered the bathroom. I heard Kaylee yelling angrily at her before all was silent. Annie sighed happily from her bed. Carla and I dressed at top speed and left for breakfast.

I spent the morning with Rose, Carla and Annie outside by the lake -- the weather was starting to turn colder and we were trying to make it feel as much like summer as it possibly could. After lunch, Carla and I hurried down to the Quidditch pitch for the Chaser tryouts.

"Look at that line!" groaned Carla. "And only one spot. We'll be here all afternoon!"

Luckily for Carla, Jayden seemed to have a system down. Anyone who couldn't do what she asked was out of the running. She started with easy stuff; general fitness. Sit-ups, push-ups. That cut the crowds practically in half. Then Jayden moved onto the actual flying. She ordered everyone to do a lap of the pitch and cut anyone who couldn't fly a broom to save their life. It had only been fifteen minutes and the line of prospective Chasers had already dwindled down to about twenty-five people. Which seemed like a lot, but the numbers before that had been monstrous. I hadn't known that there were so many people in Ravenclaw House!

Jayden had now gotten out the Quaffle and ordered the twenty-five students to form a line. Richard, the other seventh-year on the team, watched the hopeful Chasers as they tried to score on Jayden. Each person got three tries. If Jayden caught two or more of them, the person was out. If the person scored two or more times, then they stayed for the next round.

The fifteen or so remaining people continued to shoot on Jayden while Gary, one of our Beaters, grabbed his bat and set a Bludger loose, keeping it away from them while providing a distraction. This cut another few people and Richard demoted his job to Edward and joined Gary for the next round. Finally, we were down to five people. The final round was down to Paige Parshall, a pretty, dark-haired girl with a twin in the stands cheering her on, Utah Carson, a fourth-year with pale blond hair, Tianna Yale, another fourth-year with dark red hair and big blue eyes, Hannalyn Appleby, a tiny second-year who had scored every single time that she'd shot, and a fifth-year named Patrick Jorden who looked ecstatic that he'd gotten this far.

Jayden landed and the five people crowded around her. I couldn't hear what she was saying from where I sat with Carla. They all kicked off again and made another line up by the hoops. Jayden guarded the middle hoop and the first student, Paige, flew forwards with the Quaffle. She scored four times out of five. Next came Utah. He got three and flew back to the ground, his face crestfallen. Tianna only scored twice and chucked her broom on the ground the second she landed. Hannalyn scored four times as well, and Patrick got three. Utah, Tianna and Patrick left the Quidditch pitch with their brooms in one hand and their heads down. I wondered briefly; if there had been tryouts for the whole team, would I have walked away like that?

Paige and Hannalyn each flew at Jayden with the Quaffle again. Paige scored four times out of five again, while Hannalyn fumbled her last shot. Jayden smiled at Hannalyn and told her maybe next year, when both herself and Richard would have graduated. Hannalyn smiled but still looked unhappy as she and her broom trudged away.

"Congratulations, Paige," said Jayden cheerily. "And everyone, practice next Friday after dinner. Be there."

"What do you think of the new Chaser?" I asked Carla on the way up to the castle to meet Annie and Rose in the library.

"She's pretty good," said Carla thoughtfully. "Scores most of the time. Good flyer."

"You're just mad because she's better than you," I teased.

She glared at me.

"Relax, Carla. I'm just kidding."

"So, how's the new Chaser?" asked Annie the second that we sat down. She threw her quill down on that table, knocked over her ink bottle, and stared in horror as the black ink spread over her essay.

Rose waved her wand over Annie's parchment and the parchment was blank.

"What'd you do that for?" screeched Annie. The librarian made a loud shushing noise from her desk. "What'd you do that for?" whispered Annie obediently.

Rose raised an eyebrow at her. "Well, you wanted the ink off, didn't you? I can't use some kind of _selective_ spell to get only _some_ of the ink off, you know. You'll just have to write it again. It's fresh in your mind already. Just write!"

Annie groaned and picked up her quill.

***

_**Author's Note: **__I haven't updated in so long! Curse you, dance/homework/life! Except I don't want to curse dance. Or life. Just homework. :P Thank you for reviewing __**ObsessedandRepulsed**__, __**desirable69**__, __**HPobsessssssed7**__, and __**Soccergirl0809**__. Also __**AnaStasia**__ (anonymous) for reviewing practically all of my other stories as well as this one! Sorry you had to wait a while for this chapter, and it's not too eventful... I still have that something BBBIIIGGG planned and I'm hoping to get it in after Elle's Christmas break. And the Hogsmeade trip next chapter! Are you as excited as Elle? Also, thanks to __**grangergal101**__ for reading this story as well as "Danger," I'm glad that you like both of them! Now onto writing the next chapter for "Paisley"!_


	29. Thirteen

Chapter Twenty-Nine

When I woke up, the sun was shining brightly through the window. Somebody had opened the curtains; looking around, I assumed that it had been Rose. She always woke up early, and her bed was neatly made, the midnight-blue hangings pulled back and tied to the bedposts with perfect bows. Rose was nowhere in sight.

Suddenly I remembered that today was my first Hogsmeade trip _and_ my thirteenth birthday. I practically leapt out of bed and to my closet, pulling out clothes in an attempt to find something to wear. I finally decided on dark blue skinny jeans tucked into brown boots and a white tank top underneath a dark purple long-sleeved sweater. I ran a brush through my hair until it hung straight and blonde as always, then booked it out of the room and up to the common room. Rose was sitting on the couch in front of the fireplace, reading a thick book. She looked up as I sat down next to her.

"Happy birthday," she smiled. "Are you as excited to go to Hogsmeade as I am?"

I nodded eagerly.

Half an hour later, Annie and Carla came up from the dormitory and the four of us wandered down to the Great Hall for breakfast.

"Present time!" sang Annie cheerily, fishing a tiny wrapped box out of her book bag. Carla reached into her bag, too, pulling out a much-larger wrapped box. Rose revealed a flat package from beneath her robes. All three of them looked up as the mail owls swooped into the Great Hall. Three owls landed in front of me -- two neatly on the table, the third in Jordan Webber's cereal. Jordan frowned at the owl, picked it up with both hands, placed it beside the others, and set his bowl to one side. His best friend, Josh Appleby, laughed at him while stuffing his face with eggs and bacon.

I watched this, amused, until someone tapped me on the shoulder and Rose, sitting beside me, slid along the bench to make room for them. James, Al and Scorpius squeezed onto the bench. Lily entered the hall with her newfound friends and, seeing me surrounded by present-bearing friends, rushed over to sit beside Carla, dragging Ava Scamander, Jonathan Wood and Dylan Longbottom with her. Hugo, too, came across the Great Hall from the Hufflepuff table to sit on my other side. I looked around at all of these people, all pulling wrapped presents out of their bags and pockets.

"Who's first?" asked Annie. "Oh, oh, I know! Me! Me!" She handed me the tiny box, almost dropping it in the pitcher of pumpkin juice in the process. I smiled at her and began to untie the purple ribbon that tied the tissue around it. When the tissue fell down onto the table, I was holding a glass cup with purple wax inside it, a tiny string sticking out from the middle. "Look!" squealed Annie. "It's a candle! My grandmother was showing me how to make them over the summer. I didn't even use magic!"

The three owls ruffled their feathers impatiently. Rose waved her wand over the one that had fallen into Jordan's cereal and its feathers dried quickly. I untied the package from its leg and it flew away gladly.

The package was wrapped in brown paper. When I tore the paper off, it revealed a large white box that contained Grandma's present -- a pumpkin pie with a gingerbread crust and a thick paperback book called _Night World #1: Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness, Spellbinder _by L.J. Smith_._ A closer look at the back of the book revealed that it contained three different stories. I put the pie directly in front of me, planning to keep an eye on it and make sure that Annie didn't get her hands on it.

The next owl shuffled forwards, carefully avoiding the bowl of cereal and milk that James was now digging into, making himself at home at the Ravenclaw table. This owl carried a very large box that, it turned out, held two different presents -- one from Harry and Ginny, and one from Ginny's parents, Mr and Mrs Weasley. Mrs Weasley, it appeared, had knitted me a thick navy-blue sweater with a big silver _E_ on it, just like the one I'd received at Christmas two years before, but bigger. I folded the sweater neatly and placed it on the bench beside me, nudging Hugo to get him to make space for the present. I placed the box containing my pumpkin pie on top of the sweater and turned to Harry and Ginny's present, a penknife with attachments that could unlock any lock and undo any knot. The note wrapped around the knife read that it was very similar to a knife Harry had received from his godfather in his fourth year. The third owl carried a package from Rose and Hugo's parents -- three self-inking quills this year, and no ink, for obvious reasons. Also they had sent a Revealer. The note said (in Hermione's flowing script) that it was a type of eraser that could make invisible ink be, well, visible. I wondered vaguely how useful that would be, but it seemed pretty inventive.

"Me next!" said Rose, holding out her flat package. I unwrapped the black tissue paper to reveal a hand-mirror. "It's a two-way mirror," explained Rose. "I have the other one." I thanked her and Hugo shoved a package under my nose; a small, velvety green bag containing hundreds of white mints. Rose took one look at it and whirled around to face her brother, demanding to know where he got the spell that expanded the inside of the bag and after that I stopped paying attention to what Rose was saying, because Carla's big package was being held out to me.

"A Skiving Snackbox!" announced James, staring at the big black case.

"What is it?"

"What is it?" repeated James in awe. "It's only my uncles' most inventive concoction ever! When they were still in school, too! It's basically a range of sweets that make you ill. See," he said, opening the case and pulling out a sweet, "you eat the orange end and it makes you ill. Once you're out of class on your way to the hospital wing, you swallow the purple end and you've got endless time on your hands!"

"It's not _endless_ time, James," said Rose in a matter-of-fact voice. "And anyway, what's the point? There's exams at the end of the year, you know. If you skip classes and pretend to be sick all the time, you'll never pass. _I_ think it's stupid."

"Well, _I_ think it's genius," grinned Carla. I put the Skiving Snackbox on the growing pile on the bench beside me.

Al and Scorp had put their money together to buy me a beautiful diorama of the solar system, a perfectly created miniature, moving model of all the planets and the Sun, contained within a glass dome, complete with moons.

"It's supposed to be used for studying only," said Rose importantly.

"Who cares?" retorted Al. "It's cool, look at it!"

James pulled out a big plastic bag -- the kind that you buy groceries from the supermarket in -- and dumped it out onto the table in front of me. More joke items. What else? Fake wands, Dungbombs, a screaming yo-yo, stink pellets and a nose-biting teacup. I smiled gratefully at James and he smiled back at me.

"Well, Lil?" asked Al, looking across the table at his red-haired sister. "You got anything for Elle?"

"Uh," said Lily, reaching into her book bag, "yeah, sure! I mean, I've got..." She fumbled around in her bag before extracting a rumpled purple quill. "This. Here. Happy birthday!"

"Oh, come on," said James. "You forgot Elle's birthday? How can you forget it? It's on Halloween! Easy!"

Lily looked embarrassed.

After breakfast, Rose, Annie and Carla helped me carry my presents up to Ravenclaw Tower. Rather, Rose performed a spell to carry them for us and we walked behind my floating birthday presents, talking animatedly and giving the passwords as the presents approached. When we reached the dormitory, Rose set the gifts down on my bed and I started to put my things in their new places. The solar system model claimed a spot on my bedside table beside the blue Mickey Mouse sucker, and the Muggle book was placed on the shelf. Annie's candle was placed beside the solar system and my blue sweater with the silver _E_ went into my closet. I put my new penknife in the top drawer of my bedside table, along with the two-way mirror, which lay in the drawer beside the talking mirror I had received two years ago. Then I opened the next drawer and dumped James' grocery bag of joke items into it. I never really used any of these things, just dumped them onto the ever-growing pile in that second drawer and opened the drawer to look at them randomly. The Skiving Snackbox I slid under my bed, just behind the bed skirt so that it was hidden from sight, and I stuffed my new self-inking quills into my book bag.

"Pie!" shouted Carla, racing back from the bathroom, and I smiled before reaching for the white box and being overtaken by the smell of gingerbread and pumpkin.

***

An hour later, the pie was almost completely gone -- only a thin slice remained, closed up in the white box and next to the Skiving Snackbox beneath my bed -- and we were in the Entrance Hall, waiting to be in the clear to go down to Hogsmeade. I bounced eagerly in place beside my friends. Al and Scorp stood beside us. James had "more important things to do," he had said before taking off to find Royce Higgs.

Once Filch had announced that we were "clean," the six of us set out into the crisp, cool air down the front drive to the gates, down the road to Hogsmeade.

"Where to first?" asked Annie excitedly, craning her neck to look around at all of the shops.

"Honeydukes," said Carla dreamily. "My brothers and sisters have been telling me about Honeydukes _forever_. Can we go there first? Please?"

And so the sweet shop came first. Half an hour later, we left the shop, loaded with Canary Creams, Licorice Wands, squeaking sugar mice, and Peppermint Toads.

"Scrivenshaft's next," announced Rose, leaving no room for argument. "I need a new quill."

But we passed Weasley's Wizard Wheezes along the way -- many years ago, said Al, his Uncle George had bought off Zonkos as a Hogsmeade branch of the joke shop -- and were easily sidetracked from Rose's quill needs. After purchasing more joke items than we could hold from Teddy Lupin, who had apparently been recently promoted to manager at this branch, we moved onto Scrivenshaft's. Next Scorp claimed that he was out of socks, and so we went to Gladrags, which was located right between Zonkos and Scrivenshaft's. Then we went back along towards the castle and into The Three Broomsticks.

Late in the afternoon, we returned to the castle, satisfied by our purchases and full off my grandma's pumpkin pie and Butterbeers. Rose, Annie, Carla and I did not go down for dinner. I grew hungry right before going to bed and ate the last piece of my pumpkin pie as quietly as I could, because Annie was still awake.

***

_**Author's Note: **__Sorry it's been so long! Over a month! What's wrong with me?! I guess just the excitement of CHRISTMAS ... Santa Claus is coming to town ... Thanks to those who reviewed: __**HPobsessssssed7**__, __**ObsessedandRepulsed**__, and __**grangergal101**__. Now, just a piece of info -- I've changed my mind a little about the something BBBIIIGGG. (Don't kill me! It might not be as bad as you think!) You know how I said that it would probably come after Elle's Christmas break? Yeah, that's not happening. It's going to come next chapter or the chapter after that. Which will, I hope, be before Christmas break. Not my Christmas break, that started today. I mean Elle's Christmas break. Anyways. And I've changed my mind about what the something BBBIIIGGG is going to be, too. Originally I was going to use an idea that I asked permission for from another author, but now I've decided that if I'm going to do that it'll come later and I have something else that seems more important to Elle at the moment. So yeah. This is a really really really long author's note. Merry Christmas, everyone!_


	30. Tower

Chapter Thirty

The next weekend brought with it the November clouds and the first Quidditch game of the season. Usually the season started earlier, but Madam Hooch had been ill, so the season was starting later than usual. Jayden called us down to the Quidditch pitch for a practice almost every evening after dinner; we would be playing against Gryffindor, and she was determined that we win.

Saturday morning found Carla and I in the change room with the rest of the team before Annie was even at the Ravenclaw table in the Great Hall. That is, she hadn't been there when we left the Great Hall, and I was pretty sure that she was just getting out of bed right now, judging by her sleeping schedule.

The new Chaser, Paige, had been nervous all week. She looked a little green as she got changed. Carla smiled at her.

"Don't worry. We're going to kick us some Gryffindor butt," she said.

Paige grinned back. "I certainly hope so." Paige was a fifth-year but hadn't been on the team since her second year at Hogwarts, according to James, who, according to himself, knew everything.

Jayden came out of the Captain's office and gave us some last-minute instructions on our game strategy, and then we filed out onto the Quidditch field with our broomsticks in one hand. Madam Hooch stood in the center of the field and the Gryffindor team was matching us, stride for stride, across the field as we walked to meet her. While Jayden and the Gryffindor Captain shook hands, James grinned at me from his side of the field. Madam Hooch blew her whistle and we kicked off.

The game was uneventful for the first five minutes or so. Those five minutes seemed to drag on endlessly as I circled the pitch, keeping one eye out for the Snitch. Sam Jordan stood in the stands, announcing the names of Chasers who held the Quaffle and trying to make the game less boring by telling the crowd all about his disastrous date with one of the Gryffindor Chasers, Kennedy Holland, on the day of the first Hogsmeade trip. I glanced across the pitch to where Kennedy was streaking along with the Quaffle as Sam recounted their argument over who would pay the bill; she dropped the Quaffle and Edward caught it and took a shot, but the Gryffindor Keeper caught it.

Paige ended up scoring both the first and second goals of the game, which I think boosted her confidence a bit. I saw Carlie, her twin, cheering from the stands, standing a few rows down from Rose, Annie, Al and Scorp. Paige's goals seemed to start a winning streak for our team -- before I knew it, we were winning 140 to 0. The Gryffindors looked pretty dejected, the Ravenclaws elated. There was still no sign of the Snitch.

"And the new Ravenclaw Chaser, Paige Parshall, has the Quaffle again!" cried Sam. "She seems like a pretty good pick for Ravenclaw -- Jayden Scamander seems to be shaping up to be a pretty good Captain. Parshall's going down the field and -- hold on a second! It looks like Potter has spotted the Snitch!"

I spun around, looking for James. I saw him, flattened to his broom, streaking up through the grey sky towards a glinting gold ball. The crowds were going wild as I raced after him; Paige was still going towards the hoops with the Quaffle.

"And Parshall scores _again!_" shouted Sam. "Taylor's gaining on Potter..."

But it was too late. I wasn't even ten feet away from James when his fingers closed around the tiny fluttering Snitch.

"And that brings it to a tie!" Sam yelled, as all the people watching started to cheer. "150 to 150!"

And thus ended the first game of the season.

***

Dinner was full of good food (as usual) and all the Ravenclaws coming up to every member of the team to say congratulations.

"Congrats," said someone behind me. I turned in my seat to find James grinning at me.

"You too," I replied.

"Meet me in the Entrance Hall after you're done. And bring your broomstick," he said, and turned and walked away.

***

"I want to show you something," James said when I met him in the Entrance Hall after I'd finished my dinner. He took me outside on the front lawn and we kicked off.

"Will we get in trouble for this?" I asked, the wind whipping my hair back from my face as I flew next to him.

"Nah," he said. "Only if we get caught." He grinned.

I raised an eyebrow and sped up to catch up to him.

We landed almost silently on the slanted roof of the tallest tower. The two of us sat down and stared out at the land around Hogwarts. The sky was dark, and the stars gazed down at us.

"So," said James eventually. "You didn't catch the Snitch..."

I elbowed him playfully. "Shut up," I said. "If I remember correctly, you don't catch the Snitch every time, either."

We both laughed together for a while and then James said, very quietly, "Elle?"

I looked at him, suddenly getting the feeling that now was not the time to laugh.

"I -- I just wanted to say that I, er, have been completely in love with you from the first time I met you, and..."

I stared at him. What was I supposed to say to that? What was he thinking, telling me that?

He was slowly leaning in... What was I going to do? I opted for not moving a muscle. James' lips touched mine and we both froze, lips touching, not moving. After a moment he pulled away and we just stared at each other. Was that what a first kiss was supposed to be like? What about all the bells and the fireworks and the _feeling?_ The "he's-the-one" feeling? Where was all that?

It must have been two whole minutes before either of us moved. I looked away, up at the stars, then grabbed my broom from the slanted roof beside me and stood up in one fluid moment. I kicked off.

"Elle!" James called after me, but I didn't turn back. I flew off into the night, my mind numb, never looking back.

***

_**Author's Note: **__... And THAT would be the "Something BBBIIIGGG." Yes, I know that it's been a month and a half. Yes, I know that this chapter is really short and in no way makes up for how long it's taken me to update. Let me explain. I have two reasons. Bear with me! The first is completely legit; I had exams. I mean, I know that they were only a week out of the month and a half or however long it's been since the last chapter, but it's a pretty good reason. The second reason is that over Christmas I've been kind of obsessed with Kelly Clarkson (well, it kinda sorta started in November when I saw her in concert, which was AWESOME!). It's getting a teensy bit out of hand -- I literally listen to nothing else. Her CDs have been banned from the dinner table and my parents and brother are completely sick of her music. My sister's okay with it 50% of the time, but only because she's nine-and-a-half years younger than me and is convinced that anything I do is completely 100% the right thing to do... Another sign of how bad my addiction is -- I was sitting in the car waiting for my dad to come back from the grocery store or somewhere and I was looking at the quarters that we keep in the car for parking meters, and I got really excited because one of the quarters was from 1982 (the year Kelly was born) and the one right next to it was from 2002 (the year she won American Idol). Also, I am seriously considering celebrating her birthday on April 24th (she's turning 28!). I may actually bake a birthday cake... That is, if I don't screw it up because I'm not really good at cooking. Anyways, back onto the topic of the story. I really admire you if you've stuck with this story and you're still reading, because, well, I haven't exactly been faithful with the updates. All of my stories are feeling very neglected... (And yes, for those of you who are reading "Summer," that whole thing was copied and pasted from the author's note from there.) Thank you to those who reviewed last chapter -- __**spannieren**__, __**HPobsessssssed7**__ (you are seriously the most faithful reviewer in the history of the world. Every freaking chapter!), __**wishfulthinking123**__ (I suppose James could be a bit more imaginative, but it's sort of going to be his thing, I guess), __**.Black**__, and __**Strawberry Potter**__ (I still don't know how you can count down to the something BBBIIIGGG on a calendar because, well, it's not like I gave you a specific date. But you don't have to cross off any more days now!). Now, this author's note is going to be as long as this (pitifully short) chapter, so I'm going to end it right now and go listen to Kelly Clarkson. :)_


	31. Spill

Chapter Thirty-One

The days flew by. I didn't tell anyone what had happened with James on the tower, and I was fairly sure that he didn't tell anyone, either. I did my best to act normal around my friends, but whenever James joined us I fell completely silent, avoiding his gaze, recoiling at the slightest touch -- his arm brushing against mine, his body squished next to mine at the crowded Ravenclaw table. Whenever Rose suggested that we all go over and sit with the Gryffindors, I either made sure to sit as far from James as I could, or made an excuse to stay where I was. The other thing I was certain about was that I wasn't fooling anyone.

I lost a lot of sleep, staying awake all night, tossing and turning, thinking. About James, mostly. Which I didn't like. When I did sleep, it was only to revisit the highest tower in my dreams. This only made me think about James more -- which was exactly what I _didn't_ want to do. I tried to make sense of what James had said that night, his words running through my head during classes and meals. _I, er, have been completely in love with you from the first time I met you. _That was crazy! I forced myself to believe that James had just been pulling my leg or something. Maybe it wouldn't have been as bad if he'd only said he fancied me, but _love?_ He was barely a teenager, and I'd been one for less than a week!

Before I knew it, we were all packing our bags to return home for Christmas. I realized on the night before the train came to pick us up that my home was Grimmauld Place. James' home. How could I avoid him there? I briefly considered staying at Hogwarts over Christmas break, but it was too late. In the morning, we would be leaving. And I really did want to see Grandma. So the next morning, I walked silently down to the Hogwarts Express with the rest of the school. Fortunately, James didn't appear to join us in our compartment, so I was easily able to pretend to be having fun, playing our traditional game of Exploding Snap.

The train ride was soon just a smudge in my memory of the past month and a half. My memory was fine from when I was four years old until that night on the Tower, with only a tiny little patch of bluriness near the end of my first year at Hogwarts, when my parents had died. My heart ached at the thought of them.

Grandma hugged me when I got off the train. I almost poured everything out to her right there and then, but thought better of it.

I waved goodbye to Annie and Carla, and James' entire family returned to Grimmauld Place, where there was a huge party; Fred and Ayla had just gotten engaged. Molly Weasley looked slightly disgruntled at the thought of her grandson, fresh out of Hogwarts, to be married; but the party made me forget about my recent problems.

Of course, by the next morning, everyone was gone and things were back to normal. If you could call it that. I'm sure that Harry, Ginny and Grandma noticed how James and I avoided each other, but they didn't say anything. They probably assumed that we had it under control.

Which we didn't.

On Christmas Eve, Rose and Hugo and their parents came to visit, staying overnight. Rose stayed in my room and, for once, Lily was allowed to join us. The two laid their sheets out on the carpeted floor, settled in, and looked expectantly at me. I was busy feeling guilty for having a nice big bed while Rose and Lily were delegated to the floor, and I started when I discovered them staring at me.

"What?" I asked.

"_What?_" mimicked Lily. "As if you don't know."

"What's going on with you?" Rose sounded exasperated. "You're only half _there,_ you're so quiet, you've missed the Snitch at your last three games, you're avoiding James, you --"

"What does it matter?" I said bitterly.

"Don't think we didn't notice James coming to talk to you after the first Quidditch game of the season," snapped Lily. "What did he say to you?"

"He said... to meet him in the Entrance Hall with my broom after dinner," I admitted.

"And then what?" Lily inquired, business-like.

And it all came spilling out. The flying ("But it was past curfew!" objected an appalled Rose), the highest tower ("Ooh, the highest tower," grinned Lily), the kiss ("He did _what?_" shouted both of them). Rose was angry because I hadn't told her right away. Lily was angry because she finally remembered that it was, after all, her brother.

"So," said Rose finally, "what are you going to do?" I looked at her blankly and she sighed. "Oh, come on, Elle!"she said impatiently. "You can't ignore James forever! You live in the same house, for Merlin's sake! Think about it," she urged.

She was right. I knew she was right, but I didn't want to accept it. She and Lily reasoned with me until I agreed that I would need to come up with something. Then we all fell asleep.

When we woke, there were three piles of presents in my room. We worked through our presents; still more joke items from James (which I pretended not to care about while secretly wondering why he couldn't think of anything else), a scarf from Molly and Arthur, a plate of brownies and a book from Grandma. We started on the brownies before remembering that it was early in the morning and heading down to the kitchen. When I came in, James looked up at me and grinned. I froze. He walked over to me. I could feel Rose and Lily's eyes on me, watching interestedly, waiting to see what would happen.

"MIstletoe," he said quietly, pointing to the doorway above me, and then he leaned in, kissed me on the cheek, and hurried out of the room.

***

_**Author's Note: **__Yes, I know it is pitifully short, shorter than last chapter. I'm sorry. Don't hurt me. But I updated faster than I did last time... Which counts for something, right? I have no news so we'll go straight to thank-you's for my reviewers. Thanks to __**wishfulthinking123**__ ("Well, that was something big alright" -- that made me laugh. And also, thanks for the Kelly Clarkson reference in your review. Anyone know what colour James' eyes are? I can't remember what I put or what's in the epilogue of book 7, and I'm too lazy to go and look it up), __**SweetieCherrie**__, __**HPobsessssssed7**__ (haha, your response to the something BBBIIIGGG made my day), and __**Electric-Blue-Monkey **__(awesome name, by the way) for reviewing! Now, I actually do have one more thing to say. KELLY CLARKSON ROCKS!!! (Sorry. I'm a little overenthusiastic.) And again, I'm sorry that this chapter was so pathetic and short.  
_


	32. Fall

Chapter 32

I registered that both Rose and Lily were staring at me in shock. Ginny was putting plates out on the table and I knew without asking that she had seen the whole thing, but I wasn't sure what she thought about it and I wasn't about to ask. Hermione came down the stairs and into the kitchen behind us, yawning.

"Why are you staring at Elle?" she asked her daughter, following Rose's gaze to look at me. There was an awkward, lengthy pause.

"James kissed her," Lily blurted out. Hermione looked from Lily to me to the door to Ginny in surprise.

Ginny nodded. "On the cheek. There was mistletoe," she explained.

"_No_," objected Lily. I gave her a shut-your-mouth-_now_ look, but she was already babbling on. "On the top of the highest Tower, after the first Quidditch game of the season."

I tried to pretend that all the staring didn't bother me. I shrugged awkwardly and avoided the gazes of everyone in the room, especially Ginny. What was she thinking? Was she thinking that it was sweet, or was she just disturbed from learning that her son had taken a girl up to the top of the highest Tower, let alone a girl who was living with them for the summer? They let the topic slide, though, but I had a feeling that it was only because Al and Hugo showed up, wide awake and demanding food. Ginny finished setting the table and everybody else started to show up for breakfast as the smells of muffins and waffles and eggs and bacon wafted through the house. Grandma announced that she was making a pie for later and this announcement received a round of applause from the boys, and Rose and I both falling off of our chairs laughing as we thought of how quickly Annie had inhaled the last pie that Grandma sent. I felt relieved that Grandma was getting along so well with Harry and Ginny.

Rose and I were upstairs with our heads in the guest room fireplace, talking to Carla and Annie over the Floo network, when I heard a faint scream. I looked around, wondering whether it was in my head or on our end or Carla's end or Annie's end.

"What?" Annie asked.

"Did you hear that?" I kept looking around.

"Hear what?" They all looked puzzled, and after a minute I decided that it had just been my mind playing tricks on me.

"Elle?"

"Someone's calling you," said Rose. "We'll talk to you guys later, all right?" We pulled our heads out of the fireplace just as James burst into the room.

"It's your grandma," he said urgently. "Come quick." He filled us in on the situation as we rushed onto the landing. Mrs Black's portrait was screaming abuse, but I barely heard it. "She slipped on the stairs going down into the kitchen," James explained in a rush. "Blood everywhere, we think she broke something -- Elle, slide down the banister, it's faster. Trust me." As I slid away, I heard him telling Rose to count slowly to five before following me.

I reached the main entrance quickly and started down the stairs to the kitchen. Harry was picking Grandma up and ordered me to hold onto his arm. As he spun around, everything went dark and I felt like I was being sucked down a giant tube. Moments later, we reappeared in an alleyway in central London. I followed Harry along the sidewalk towards the hospital.

"Isn't there a special hospital, you know, for us?" I asked quietly, very aware of all the people watching us hurry along the street.

"Yes, but they aren't usually very pleased to have Muggle patients," he explained. "Even if that Muggle knows about us."

The automatic doors slid open as we approached, and Harry sped up to get Grandma to the emergency room. I lingered behind for a moment. _Please let Grandma be okay,_ I thought, looking up at the cloudy skies. Then, before the doors could shut themselves behind Harry and Grandma, I hurried into the hospital.

***

_**Author's Note: **I know it's super short and kind of, well, lame, and I'm sorry. I've been too bored to do anything lately -- spring break is usually fun for me, and I don't know why it isn't this year... I think it's because my best friends went away... :( Anyways, you'd think that me being bored would equal a chapter or two, but I've been SO bored that I've been just sitting around talking to people on Twitter all day, every day... :P And watching TV and stuff. Anyways... On Tuesday, March 9, 2010, Kelly Clarkson's new single was released to the radio! BUT I haven't heard it yet. Which sucks. Have any of you heard it? It's called "All I Ever Wanted." If your local radio station is playing "Long Shot," they are WRONG!!! Mine is. It's extremely annoying because I listened to the radio ALL DAY on Tuesday and sat through a gazillion terrible songs waiting for AIEW to play and then they played LS instead! :( But it was still KC so I listened to it anyways. ;) Then on Wednesday was the one-year anniversary of AIEW (the CD, not the song. Well, the song too...) and so I listened to the CD 8.5 times -- the ninth time Dad came in and turned it off in the middle of "If I Can't Have You" because he was tired of hearing the same songs over and over and over all day. :P Now, I just wanna say one more thing before I thank my reviewers from last chapter -- if my grandparents took me and my brother to Africa THIS year instead of last year, I would be in Cape Town, South Africa just in time for KC's concert there, and I would've been able to go. Well, I don't know if I'd be able to, but if I wasn't able to I'd be extremely mad, because my brother got to go to a soccer game in England when we stopped there, so why shouldn't I be able to go to a concert? It wasn't even his favourite team playing! (Rant over.) Now, thanks to my reviewers: **ladeeda**, **SweetieCherrie**, **spannieren**, **wishfulthinking123** (yes, it was in Paisley that she read "The Hunger Games" -- I'm glad you liked it!), **HPobsessssssed7**, **Strawberry Potter **(your reviews make my LIFE!), and **BlueRose22**. And for anyone who's still reading this author's note that's practically as long as this chapter, go on YouTube and look up "Kelly Clarkson Poison Candy" and "Kelly Clarkson Between the Lines." Both are leaks and that makes me sad, but they're SO good and they should be on her next album!  
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	33. Verdict

Chapter 33

I waited anxiously in the hallway outside the room where they'd taken Grandma. Harry stood next to me as i leaned against the wall, heart pounding, waiting. _Please don't take Grandma away from me, too..._ I'd already lost Mum and Dad, and even if Nana and Granddad weren't technically gone, I didn't want to be sent to them. I didn't like them, they didn't like me. The feeling was mutual. If Grandma was gone, what would happen to me?

The doctor let herself out of the room and smiled at me. "You're Mrs Bennett's granddaughter?" she asked kindly, and I nodded, fearing whatever she was about to say. "Your grandmother's going to be fine," she told me, and I breathed a sigh of relief. My heart started pounding again as she continued, "But I don't know if she'll be fit to take care of you anymore."

"Yes, her doctor already said that last summer," explained Harry. "That's why Elle's living with us."

"And you are...?" The doctor turned to look at him as she spoke.

"Harry Potter," he replied, sticking his hand out to her. "My wife and I are Elle's guardians."

"Have you legally adopted her?" asked the doctor.

"No," admitted Harry, "but Tracy gave us the adoption papers a few months ago, just in case." I looked at him, startled; this was the first I'd heard about this. "We will fill them out when -- and if -- necessary," he continued.

The doctor nodded her approval and I asked if I could see Grandma. She led me into the hospital room, and I stared at my grandmother. She was still unconscious, one leg and one arm in casts. Her head had been bandaged, and her other arm had an IV stuck in it. The beeping machinery was pumping antibiotics into her, and she looked very small in the big hospital room.

"Are you sure she'll be all right?" I asked uncertainly.

"Yes," said the doctor confidently. "You brought her in quickly enough, don't worry. She's lost a lot of blood, but we've scheduled a blood transfusion for tomorrow, and she shouldn't be here for too long."

I glanced out the window, up at the sky. _Thank you._

_***_

_**Author's Note: **It's been almost a month since I last updated, and I'm sorry. I'm also sorry that this chapter is so short -- I was going to make it longer as last chapter was so short, but I couldn't really expand much on this chapter's events. :P Anyways, I'm sorry. Please don't chase me with metaphorical pitchforks. :) Thank you to my reviewers from last chapter: **SweetieCherrie** (thanks for the diabolical master plan for Elle & James, but I don't know if I'll use it...), **Electric-Blue-Monkey** (hooray for 'All I Ever Wanted' and Kelly Clarkson in general!), **spannieren** (don't cry...), **Strawberry Potter** (don't worry, you didn't sound rude. And even though I've already replied to your review, I'm gonna say it again here so that other people will know. Grandma isn't going to die. If she dies, it'll only be from old age, not falling down the stairs. And I can't remember how old she is, but she's definitely too young to be dying of old age), **AnaStasia** (I'm glad you like KC's new single! And not to brag but I've heard it now too!), **LovezHarryPotter** (thanks for adding this story to your Favourite Story list), and **HPobsessssssed7** (who was the one-hundredth reviewer, AND who told me I must be bored 'cause I listened to KC's fourth CD 8.5 times in one day. For the record, I did that for fun, not out of boredom)! Hooray for reviews! (They make me happy. Don't judge me.)  
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	34. Talk

Chapter 34

I peeked into the kitchen. My heart was beating far too fast for my liking, but it slowed a little at the sight of Harry and Ginny sitting at the long kitchen table, drinking tea and talking in low voices.

I cleared my throat and they looked up. "Er, can I talk to you?" I asked nervously. _Relax,_ I told myself. _They're not that frightening._

Ginny patted the bench beside her. "Of course," she replied encouragingly.

"Er... At the hospital," I began, sitting down and looking across the table at Harry, "you said that you had... adoption papers."

Ginny put an arm around my shoulders. "If it's too soon for you, we understand," she told me. "We know that it hasn't been so long since you lost your parents, and if you don't feel comfortable with it, we won't even consider the possibility."

I nodded slowly. "Good," I said, but there were still butterflies fluttering around in my stomach. "But... that's only part of it."

"It's about James, too, isn't it?" Ginny guessed. Harry looked startled and opened his mouth to say something, but she gave him a warning glance before continuing, taking my silence as a 'yes.' "You know, you won't _technically_ be his sister."

"I know, but -"

"It would still be awkward," agreed Ginny. "Don't worry, I understand. We're still faced with a problem, though, which is that your grandmother has been pronounced unable to care for you any longer. If you would like to continue to live in Grimmauld Place, Harry and I will need to become your official guardians." I nodded and she added, "I'm glad that you came to talk to us, Elle."

On my way back upstairs, I heard somebody hiss my name. I looked around, but no doors on the landing were open.

"Up here," hissed the somebody. I looked up to see James leaning over the banister two floors above me. "Come up here a minute."

I hurried up to the fourth floor and James asked me to come into his room. Warily, I followed him through the doorway.

Dark colours, with a scarlet-and-gold quilt on the bed, and lots of Quidditch posters. There was an empty owl cage on a dark walnut desk near the window, and a bright red Pygmy Puff chasing its shadow around in a cage on the bedside table. A bookcase full of old schoolbooks and broomstick catalogs stood against one wall and a wardrobe against another.

"I wanted to apologize," began James. "For what happened on the Tower, and then earlier, with the mistletoe. And - and I'm sorry about your grandma. Is she okay?" he added anxiously.

I nodded. "The doctor said she'll be fine. And she's not going to be in the hospital for very long. But she's been forbidden to take care of me anymore, so my choices are to go back to Granddad and Nana - which is _never_ going to happen - or to stay here, and your parents are either going to adopt me or become my official guardians."

"Do you know which?"

"Er, I was just talking to them, and I think they're going with the second option." James looked relieved. "Well, I should probably get to bed," I excused myself. Then, impulsively, I stood on tiptoe and kissed James lightly on the cheek. "And don't worry about the Tower. Or the mistletoe," I tossed over my shoulder as I left the room.

* * *

"Lily, if you don't hurry up we're going to leave without you!" Harry bellowed up the stairs. Mrs Black's portrait began to scream. "We have to figure out a way to get this thing taken down," he added to Ginny as he pulled the curtains shut over the painting.

"I'm coming!" shouted Lily, and I heard a door slam on the third floor. Mrs Black obviously heard it, too, because the curtains flew open again and the screeching resumed.

"Lily," said Ginny when Lily arrived downstairs and Harry had shut Mrs Black up again, "how many times do I have to tell you to be _quiet?_"

"Sorry," said Lily sheepishly.

It was a wonder that the Muggles living in Grimmauld Place didn't notice a packed car pulling out of the brick walls of Numbers Eleven and Thirteen, let alone the multiple owl cages on our laps. We made it to King's Cross in record time.

"Elle! Is your grandma okay?" shrieked Carla the second I was fully on Platform 9 3/4. She flung her arms around me.

"Can you let me breathe?"

I waited until Carla stepped back. "She's going to be okay. She's not allowed to take care of me anymore, though, so Harry and Ginny are going to become my official guardians."

"Ooh, that means you don't have to go back to your grandparents!" said Annie excitedly, appearing with her brother, sister and parents.

"Merlin's pants, it's Harry Potter!" screeched a breathless Shannon, spotting Harry and Ginny talking to Ron and Hermione. She hurried towards them, nearly knocking over Rose in her hurry to get to them. Rose reached us, straightening her t-shirt, and hugged all of us at once.

"So Shannon's still obsessed with Harry?" I asked after a moment.

"Oh, yes. Six years and counting," replied Annie.

We boarded the train and found a compartment to share with Al and Scorp. Lily and Hugo had both disappeared in opposite directions down the train, and the compartment was slightly quieter than normal as the Hogwarts Express started back towards Hogwarts.

* * *

_**Author's Note: **I'm sorry it's been so long! A month and a half... :P There is no excuse other than the fact that I've been REALLY busy. Festival, then Cabaret, and then writer's block. :( BUT I'm back now. I've put two of my fanfics on hold temporarily (Summer and Paisley) and I'm sorry to those who are reading those two, but I'm just feeling a lack of enthusiasm for Twilight right now and I find the task of writing two stories much less daunting than writing four. I will be continuing both of them, though, I hope, probably in the summer when I'll have a LOT more free time. I apologize in advance for any long-in-between updates, because the exams that we all love are coming up soon... BUT I only have two this semester. Unless you count French as two because there's a written exam and an oral exam... So three, then, because of Socials. :P Now that I'm done talking to myself, I'd like to thank those of you that have stuck with this story even though I haven't updated in SO long, as well as my reviewers from last chapter: spannieren and HPobsessssssed7, as well as my newest reader/reviewer, salinauchiha, who is the beta on a story I'm reading. She was stalking a reviewer's profile (mine) and decided to read my story. How cool is that? (I get excited easily...) Now, I'll try to update sooner than I did this time... :)  
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	35. IMPORTANT AUTHOR'S NOTE

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE.**_

yeah, this entire chapter is going to be an author's note. i hate doing that, but this story has been on hiatus for a couple of years and the last time i updated it was in 2010, i think, so i don't know how many of you are still around.

anyways, i got a new review on this a few days ago from _strawberrypotter123_, saying how nice it would have been if i'd continued this story because it was 'so great.' i don't think this story was that great, personally, and i feel like my writing style has improved a lot since then.

when i got the review, i almost wanted to just pick up where i left off, but i didn't think i could do it. i felt as if it would be too difficult after almost three years to just keep writing, that it would have an awkward transition from the old writing to the new writing, and it wouldn't quite fit. i tried to reread the story from chapter one and it was so god-awful that i just couldn't do it. i got to chapter four and i had to close the tab and read something else to bring back my sanity. there's so much in this story that is just completely unrealistic, and like i said somewhere up above, my writing has improved a lot since then.

so instead of continuing 'mudblood,' i'm going to be rewriting it. in a way. i'm changing some of the details, a bit of the storyline, though the general gist of it will be the same. i'm going to make it more realistic, most importantly. elle taylor is no more, unfortunately. i loved her, but let's face it, she was kind of stupid. about a lot of things. she was good while she lasted. we'll have a new main character who i like a lot more, and as kind of an ode to 'mudblood,' her name is similar: eloise, and she goes by el.

the first chapter of the new kind-of-version of this story has just been posted. it's called 'state of grace' and i don't know how many of you guys are still around, but if any of you are, i'd love if you'd give the new story a chance!

~rachel


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